Indians in New Zealand
While the two lascars who came on board a French ship in 1769 were the first Indians to visit New Zealand, the first settler was another lascar who deserted his ship City of Edinburgh in 1810, married a Maori woman and settled down in the Bay of Islands. He was followed by six others who also jumped ship in 1814 from Matilda and settled in the South Island.
The number of Indians settling down in New Zealand in the nineteenth century remained small. We know of Edward Peters from Goa who came in 1853. Locally known as ‘Black Peter’, he was the first person to discover gold in Otago, although credit for that is usually given to the celebrated Gabriel Read. The other early settlers for whom we have historical records are the two brothers, Bir Singh Gill and Phuman Singh Gill who arrived in New Zealand in c.1890 from Punjab.
In the twentieth century the number of Indians coming to New Zealand gradually increased. They came mainly from Gujarat and Punjab and were therefore a homogenous community. It was predominantly a male population, who did mainly manual jobs, like scrub-cutting, bottle collecting and hawking, serving communities in some of the remotest parts of the country. In other words, they contributed to the colonization of the land. Gradually they moved into small retail trade and market gardening and thus contributed further to its economy.
So when we talk about New Zealand’s national identity, we need to keep in mind that Indians were a part of that national community from historical times.
While during the inter-war period migration of Asians remained limited because of a restrictive immigration law, Indians continued to come, as they were the subjects of the British Empire. Professional skilled migration increased after immigration restrictions were lifted in 1987, reaching 155,178 or 3.9% of the national population in 2013. To them we must also add the 10,929 Indo-Fijians.
Hindi is now the fourth most commonly spoken language in New Zealand, spoken by 66,309 people.
But more importantly, Indians are now a successful minority ethnic group in New Zealand. It is not just we find people of Indian origin in high profile public positions, from Governor-General, Members of Parliament to CEOs. According to 2006 census figures, analysed by Arvind Zodgekar, Indians are a highly qualified group: 29.4% of the adult male and 29.8% of the adult female population have Bachelor degree or above; comparable figures for NZ European population are 13.1% for male and 13.9% for female. Also occupationally they are highly placed: 64.2% of them are in top four occupational categories, compared with 64.09% among the NZ European. But this does not mean that they have no problems; despite being more qualified, unemployment rate among them is much higher - 6.30%, as compared with 3.90% among the NZ European population. The 2013 census data, not yet properly analysed, will possibly show further improvement to their position, due to the enterprising spirit of these skilled Indian migrants. But more about that later.
While the two lascars who came on board a French ship in 1769 were the first Indians to visit New Zealand, the first settler was another lascar who deserted his ship City of Edinburgh in 1810, married a Maori woman and settled down in the Bay of Islands. He was followed by six others who also...
While the two lascars who came on board a French ship in 1769 were the first Indians to visit New Zealand, the first settler was another lascar who deserted his ship City of Edinburgh in 1810, married a Maori woman and settled down in the Bay of Islands. He was followed by six others who also jumped ship in 1814 from Matilda and settled in the South Island.
The number of Indians settling down in New Zealand in the nineteenth century remained small. We know of Edward Peters from Goa who came in 1853. Locally known as ‘Black Peter’, he was the first person to discover gold in Otago, although credit for that is usually given to the celebrated Gabriel Read. The other early settlers for whom we have historical records are the two brothers, Bir Singh Gill and Phuman Singh Gill who arrived in New Zealand in c.1890 from Punjab.
In the twentieth century the number of Indians coming to New Zealand gradually increased. They came mainly from Gujarat and Punjab and were therefore a homogenous community. It was predominantly a male population, who did mainly manual jobs, like scrub-cutting, bottle collecting and hawking, serving communities in some of the remotest parts of the country. In other words, they contributed to the colonization of the land. Gradually they moved into small retail trade and market gardening and thus contributed further to its economy.
So when we talk about New Zealand’s national identity, we need to keep in mind that Indians were a part of that national community from historical times.
While during the inter-war period migration of Asians remained limited because of a restrictive immigration law, Indians continued to come, as they were the subjects of the British Empire. Professional skilled migration increased after immigration restrictions were lifted in 1987, reaching 155,178 or 3.9% of the national population in 2013. To them we must also add the 10,929 Indo-Fijians.
Hindi is now the fourth most commonly spoken language in New Zealand, spoken by 66,309 people.
But more importantly, Indians are now a successful minority ethnic group in New Zealand. It is not just we find people of Indian origin in high profile public positions, from Governor-General, Members of Parliament to CEOs. According to 2006 census figures, analysed by Arvind Zodgekar, Indians are a highly qualified group: 29.4% of the adult male and 29.8% of the adult female population have Bachelor degree or above; comparable figures for NZ European population are 13.1% for male and 13.9% for female. Also occupationally they are highly placed: 64.2% of them are in top four occupational categories, compared with 64.09% among the NZ European. But this does not mean that they have no problems; despite being more qualified, unemployment rate among them is much higher - 6.30%, as compared with 3.90% among the NZ European population. The 2013 census data, not yet properly analysed, will possibly show further improvement to their position, due to the enterprising spirit of these skilled Indian migrants. But more about that later.
Leave a Comment