Historical context

People of Asian ethnicities have a long history of settlement in New Zealand. The majority of migration from Asia throughout the Nineteenth Century contributed to Chinese and Indian populations in New Zealand. Ongoing migration from Asia has become more diverse and now people from all parts of Asia, from Afghanistan in the west to Japan in the east, make up this very diverse sector of the population. The communities have settled throughout New Zealand. A significant proportion of the Asian population are New Zealand-born.

How many Asian people moved?

More than 35 percent of people of Asian ethnicities have moved within New Zealand between 2001 and 2006.

In 2006, there were 354,552 people who identified with one or more ethnicities in the Asian ethnic grouping. Of these, 346,977 people told us where they had lived five years earlier at the time of the 2001 Census.

Table 1

Among the people aged five years and over who gave us this information, 35 percent had moved at least once in NZ within the previous five years, 26 percent had not moved and 39 percent had arrived or returned from overseas.

The Asian population in New Zealand is a very mobile population and the dynamics of internal migration within New Zealand is strongly affected by recent migration.

Table 2

The Asian population living in New Zealand for more than five years is increasingly mobile. This population is more mobile than people of Pacific and European ethnicities, but less mobile than Māori. The overseas-born component of the population is more mobile than the younger New Zealand-born component, as preferred locations for settlement and opportunities for family formation and employment change.

Table 3