Researcher heads for California

PAUL SPOONLEY

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Paul Spoonley wants to know what is a New Zealander.

The Albany Massey University social sciences professor will be travelling on a Fulbright scholarship to University of California, Berkeley, next year to study children of immigrants.

He will compare Latino children living in California to children of immigrants living in New Zealand, focusing on Pacific and Asian children.

"This will be a great comparison because both started to migrate at the same time," he says.

Mr Spoonley and other Massey and Waikato University lecturers were awarded $3 million from the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology to study the integration of immigrants from 2007 to 2012.

"Auckland is one of the most diverse cities in the world," says Mr Spoonley.

He says he wants to extend the study to looking at children of immigrants because they are doing such great things for our country, particularly in music and sport.

"Aucklanders sometimes see immigrants as a problem rather than someone to be welcomed we want to say to Auckland this is the future," he says. To explain some of his findings, he is giving a lecture called Mana Tangata: What does it mean to be a New Zealander in the 21st century?

"Our country has the most people living overseas, if you keep moving where does your loyalty lie or do we have shared loyalties?"

The public lecture will focus on the politics of ethnic identity looking at the rights of Maori as tangata whenua since the 1970s and the growing pressure to develop multiculturalism which acknowledges immigrant diversity.

He says it is important for us to see these issues in terms of trying to understand who has the right to citizenship in New Zealand.

Mr Spoonley will give his lecture at the Massey Unversity Albany campus from 1pm to 3pm on Wednesday, October 14.

Bring a gold coin donation. Contact Sharyn Bonham on 414-0800 ext 41082 for more information.

- © Fairfax NZ News