New Zealand is a small country of just over 5 million people in the South Pacific, with a diverse and transnational population. It has a long history of settler colonialism, and is now a country of immigration, with almost one third of the population born overseas. Today, there are over 200 ethnic groups in the country, and according to Statistics New Zealand, 17.3% of the population is classified as “Asian”. New Zealand also has an unusual system of ethnic classification which has developed over the past decades as diversity has increased: classification now relies on self-identification, with a broad definition of ethnicity encompassing heritage, ancestry, culture, language and feelings of belonging.
The East African Asian population, a group with complex origins, does not fit easily within current classification frameworks. New Zealand has a growing population of immigrants from South Asia, including from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, along with immigrants of South Asian origin or descent, who immigrated from elsewhere, such as from Fiji, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean and East Africa. This distinction is important in terms of migration paths and cultural connections: with key differences between direct migrants from the Indian sub-continent, and twice (or even thrice) migrants like the East African Asians.
The South Asian populations in Aotearoa have a long history, with small numbers of Indian migrants arriving in the 1800s and early 1900s, often in relation to work as indentured labourers in Fiji. Like the early Chinese population, Indian migrants experienced significant racism from the British settlers, being described as “amoral Hindoos”. However, unlike the Chinese, the Indians were British subjects, making it more difficult to pass legislation to exclude them from the new British colony. In 1920, the government passed legislation to limit Indian immigration, except for those with family in New Zealand, effectively blocking new migrants. By the 1970s, immigration policy liberalization ended this restrictive immigration policy, but it was not until the 1987 Immigration Act that migration from South Asia was able to meaningfully increase. By 2023, these populations had grown significantly, with 292,092 people described as Indian (including 23,808 as Fijian Indian), 23,661 as Sri Lankan and 8091 as Pakistani. India is now the largest source of migrants (by citizenship) for the country.
The South Asian communities in Aotearoa are then very diverse in their origins and cultures, yet as in other places, South Asian immigrants are often seen as sharing a generalized “South Asian” culture. This is also reflected in systems of ethnic classification. This diverse population is often presented with the choice of selecting “Indian” ethnicity as a tick box, (concealing a diversity of ethnicities, religions, languages and birthplaces), or using the “Other” write-in category.
Self-identification then does not always match the available categories: the first author’s father recently commented that he never ticks the “Indian” box in the census or at the GP, because he does not feel any connection to India as a country. As an East African Asian, his parents were of Indian descent, and he was born and brought up in Kenya. He feels more African than Indian, he has lived in New Zealand for 40 years, but chooses to select Asian or Other on official forms. As Murji describes, East African Asian identity is complex in terms of personal identification, creating an “apparent paradox of looking Asian but feeling some greater sense of connection to Africa”.
There is a small population of East African Asians in Aotearoa, with initial migrants arriving in the 1960s as the East African countries became independent, and 244 refugees settling following Uganda’s expulsion of East African Asians. Actual numbers today are difficult to estimate, as the actual count is not available from the census. Given the data constraints, we could estimate numbers by looking at those who write in this response directly, but also by looking at country of birth as related to ethnicity—such as those who select “Indian”, and indicate a country of birth in East Africa. For example, the 2018 census recorded 4965 people who identified as “Indian” and were born in Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as 1740 who were born in Europe and the UK. For those born in NZ, this becomes more complex, as they are not easily visible in the data.
East African Asians do not fit into simple racial or ethnic categories, with their multiple ties to distinct and diverse places around the world. The ancestral link to India is often highlighted, but while origins may be linked to India, but this is not their country of origin, their home. While India is often tied to heritage, Africa can signify belonging, with the culture and linguistic mixtures developed by East African Asians remaining distinct from direct migrants from India.
Race and ethnicity have been measured in different ways around the world, and these classifications are often based on the idea of simple, singular categories. The national census is the best-known way in which populations and identities are measured, reflecting the history of each country, with their colonial pasts, contemporary power dynamics, and shifting political interests. New Zealand was one of the first countries to define and measure ethnicity as socially constructed, shifting from a strict colonial classification system to one of the most flexible: defining ethnicity as voluntary, individual, fluid and multiple, and also recognizing multiple ethnic identifications. This deliberate move toward subjective understandings of ethnicity has set New Zealand apart from many other countries.
Statistics on ethnicity are currently classified at four different levels of detail. The first and highest level provides a range of broad groupings and is often used in research and policy-making: European, Māori, Pacific Peoples, Asian, Middle Eastern/Latin American/African (MELAA) and Other. These high-level labels are not individual ethnic groups, but rather broad, highly diverse, collections of ethnicities: as Callister notes, “… they are not strictly ‘who we are’, but whom statistical agencies or researchers group us with”. Ethnic classification at the highest level in New Zealand then collates all Indian ethnicities under “Asian”. East African Asians/Indians become coded as “Asian”, rather than reflecting any African link. The most detailed level of classification provides 233 categories, but does not include a category for East African Asian/Indian.
In the national census, the ethnic categories used are:
New Zealand European
Māori
Samoan
Cook Islands Māori
Tongan
Niuean
Chinese
Indian
Other (e.g., Dutch, Japanese, Tokelauan. Please state)
Census respondents are then grouped as “Asian” if they select “Chinese”, “Indian” or enter an “Other” response which is classified under the level 1 “Asian” grouping. “Asian” is problematic in classification: a very broad term that can describe those originating from continental Asia (excluding Iran which is in MELAA), or as a shorthand for more specific sub-groups, such as South Asian or East Asian. In the UK, “Asian” is frequently used as a collective term, officially and socially, for those with ethnic/family origins in the Indian subcontinent, while the terms “Asian” and “Indian” are used in different ways in the US, Canada and Australia, reflecting different meanings and histories.
In New Zealand, the official classification “Asian” therefore includes an extremely diverse grouping of populations, encompassing many ethnicities, ancestries and migration pathways. Such overly broad and diverse categories are troublesome: both in assuming shared characteristics, and concealing the fact that many people classified as Asian, or even Indian, may not identify themselves in this way. Within the health sector, for example, “Asian” can thus obscure potentially important differences, while at the same time, excluding those who do not see the category as applying to them.
Finding a place for East African Asians within these classifications is not simple. In New Zealand, the numbers of East African Asians are much smaller than in the UK, but the challenges of accurate classification remain. While “Indian” is often used as a shorthand for South Asian ancestry, there are important differences along generational, linguistic, religious and migration path lines. The “Indian” tick-box masks important population diversity, conflating multiple ethnicities within an overarching label which has connotations of national belonging. East African Asians for example, may see themselves as African rather than Indian or even Asian, similar to Fijian Indians with connections to the Pacific.
Despite these complications, the census remains the gold standard for measuring and classifying the population. The measurement of ethnicity is particularly complex, and while New Zealand’s system of self-identification allows for flexibility and personal choice, there are limits, as top-level categories mask more detailed identifications when data are consolidated and utilized in public policy and social sectors. It is important to ask ourselves what exactly is being asked of diasporic groups: when self-identification does not match external perception, are we looking for geographic, cultural or genetic origins?
East African Asian identity provides an important case study when exploring ethnic classifications, particularly in New Zealand’s flexible and relatively inclusive context. As populations have become increasingly diverse and transnational, singular classifications no longer accurately reflect identities and heritages in multicultural societies. This has particularly affected populations with complex histories, those whose heritages and identities do not easily sit within traditional tools of measurement. Even the most expansive classification system can fall short when trying to encompass multiple identities and in-between forms of belonging, with identities such as East African Asian highlighting how arbitrary labels and boundaries can be.
References
Full article and list of references available here: https://www.mdpi.com/2313-5778/8/4/141
