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Immigration to Aotearoa New Zealand

The arrival of Māori to Aotearoa, then immigrants from Great Britain was followed by people from all over the world. This topic is about migrants, refugees, journeys, transport and what has made New Zealand a popular migrant nation. SCIS no. 1827930

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Scandinavian settlers at Kopuaranga

Scandinavian settlers at Kopuaranga

Copy print of a group of Scandinavian settlers at Kopuaranga.

Immigration promotion: Auckland, 1850s

Immigration promotion: Auckland, 1850s

Each province was expected to advance through a combination of immigration and land development. While most provinces sold land, Auckland was prepared to grant 40 acres (16 hectares) of land to ‘ev...

"Immigration - Important Notice"

"Immigration - Important Notice"

This government notice documents the controversial "Dawn Raids" period when Pacific migration to Aotearoa New Zealand had come under strict Government scrutiny. This notice was displayed in Post Of...

Migration will not return to pre-Covid levels

New Zealand will not be throwing open its doors to the large numbers of new migrants seen in recent years, once it is ready to reopen the border.

CHINESE IMMIGRATION. (Poverty Bay Herald, 10 September 1908)

The Anti-Asiatic League were opposed to Chinese immigration.

'No White Policy in NZ': Fact and Fiction in New Zealand's Asian Immigration Record, 1946-1978, by Sean Brawley, p 16-36

NZ Journal of History > 1993 Volume 27 > No. 1 > 'No White Policy in NZ': Fact and Fiction in New Zealand's Asian Immigration Record, 1946-1978, by Sean Brawley, p 16-36

Somali family reunion, Wellington Airport, New Zealand - Photograph taken by Ross Giblin

Somali family reunion, Wellington Airport, New Zealand - Photograph taken by Ross Giblin

Somali refugee, Said Farah, is greeted by his mother, Maryan Farah, and brother, Abdisalan Farah, at Wellington Airport. Photographed 11 July 1997 by Evening Post staff photographer Ross Giblin Qu...

Child migrants, Wellington

Child migrants, Wellington

Among the new immigrants from Scotland in the years between the two world wars were orphans and other children who lacked family support, brought out under various schemes. They included this group...

Children of the migration

Children of the migration

The stories of the Pacific Island immigrants who came to New Zealand from the 1950s-1980s.

Melting pot: A cuisine of immigrants

Melting pot: A cuisine of immigrants

The story of New Zealand developing its own cuisine is a story of immigration. As the last major landmass on Earth to be inhabited, it was teeming with flora, and with fauna unfamiliar with being c...

Moments in Time - Immigration

Moments in Time - Immigration

A 30 second interstitial on immigration to New Zealand from England and other countries. Made entirely from primary sources from Archives New Zealand on 1080i digital video A transcript of this ite...

Murder of Joe Kum Yung by Lionel Terry

Murder of Joe Kum Yung by Lionel Terry

On the evening of September 24, 1905, Joe Kum Hung was publicly attacked while in Haining Street, Central Wellington. He was shot twice in the head, and died later that night in hospital from his w...

New Faces Old Fears

New Faces Old Fears

Nominated for a Qantas Media Award, this documentary examines prejudices against Asians in New Zealand, as immigration grows (80,000 ethnic Chinese and 20,000 Koreans have arrived in New Zealand si...

The settling of Eketāhuna

Wellington photographer James Bragge took this photograph on one of his trips into the Wairarapa between 1876 and 1877. It shows Eketahuna, a township developed and built by Scandinavians. For a ti...

Journey for Three

Journey for Three

This National Film Unit dramatised doco was boosterism for postwar immigration to New Zealand. Three Brits (Margaret, Cassie, Harry) travel and settle down under and the film records their hopes, j...

New Country - New People

New Country - New People

This 1978 National Film Unit documentary provides a potted history of settler groups that came to New Zealand from Europe. Archive material and narration covers the colonials. Then visits are paid ...

Potential immigrants to New Zealand

Potential immigrants to New Zealand

By the 1990s a wider range of ethnic migrant groups were coming to live in New Zealand, including professional Chinese business migrants, as this photograph shows. In 1987 Parliament had passed an ...

The Arrival

Oil painting depicting a settler family in a surfboat coming in to land on the New Plymouth foreshore. A man is pictured in the foreground holding a rope attached to the bow of the surfboat. He i...

Here to Stay

Here to Stay uses New Zealand personalities to examine key settler groups that make up the Kiwi tribe. Each show mixes personal stories with a wider view, as the presenter sets out to discover what...

The Story of Seven-Hundred Polish Children

The Story of Seven-Hundred Polish Children

This 1967 documentary tells the story of 734 Polish children who were adopted by New Zealand in 1944 as WWII refugees. Moving interviews, filmed 20 years later, document their harrowing exodus from...

Matilda Lo Keong

The first female Chinese immigrant to New Zealand

Stamp of NZ Company settlers arriving in Pito-one (Petone), 1840

Stamp of NZ Company settlers arriving in Pito-one (Petone), 1840

On 22 January 1840, the first of the New Zealand Company’s fleet of six immigrant ships, the Aurora, arrived in Pito-one (Petone), marking the founding of the settlement that would become known as ...

New Plymouth immigration barracks, 1841

New Plymouth immigration barracks, 1841

To house the first Plymouth Company immigrants in March 1841, Richard Barrett and local Māori erected temporary accommodation on the beachfront at Ngāmotu. This lithograph shows an impressive row o...

Shipboard diary

The diary of Thomas Stokes

In 1879, 20 year old Thomas Stokes and his family immigrated to New Zealand.

Dutch immigrant passengers disembarking

Dutch immigrant passengers disembarking

Shows men descending stair from KLM DC-4/C - 54A aeroplane at Whenuapai airport 1950. Aeroplane has 'The Flying Dutchman' on its side. Likely these men are the 55 Dutch dairy workers who were the f...

The arrival of the Māori in New Zealand

The arrival of the Māori in New Zealand

Probably the best-known history painting ever produced in New Zealand caused a sensation when first exhibited in 1899.

From a settler’s wife

Letter from 1852 from a female immigrant to New Zealand.

A Somali refugee family

A Somali refugee family

The first Somali refugees came to New Zealand in 1993. Over the last 15 or so years, a large number of refugees entering New Zealand (like Abdi Mohamed, his wife and 11 children in the above photog...

Emigration. Detailing the progress and vicissitudes of an emigrant.

Emigration. Detailing the progress and vicissitudes of an emigrant.

A 15-panel series of comical scenes, showing a man leaving England for America. He encounters a storm on the way. On arrival in America he finds cholera is raging. He sails down the Gulf of St Lawr...

The longest migration

For Europeans to live in New Zealand meant the longest journey of migration in human history.

Arrivals and departures

Arrivals and departures

This lithograph from the 1850s is probably a picture of New Zealand settlers about to return to Britain. They are being farewelled by a gold miner (with the pick) and a Māori man. However, it is al...

Chinese settler’s trunk

Chinese settler’s trunk

Chinese settler Wong Tow carried his possessions in two black lacquer trunks when he immigrated to New Zealand around 1900.

Graph of New Zealand immigration 1840-1914

Graph of New Zealand immigration 1840-1914

Graph charting immigration to New Zealand between 1840 and 1914.

Dinner on board the first emigrant ship for New Zealand

Dinner on board the first emigrant ship for New Zealand

Shows steerage passengers seated at long tressle tables, eating dinner. There are bunks to each side. The first immigrant ship to arrive in New Zealand was the Aurora A copy of a wood engraving '...

Guide for Pacific migrants

A concise guide for those who are moving to New Zealand from the Pacific Islands.

Is our refugee quota really all that bad?

When you crunch the numbers, the feebleness of NZ’s intake becomes shamefully clear, argues Murdoch Stephens.

How Hamiltonians can help welcome our newest residents

As 30 interpreters from Afghanistan and their immediate families touched down in New Zealand in 2013, preparations were already underway to welcome them to Hamilton.

Migrants and refugees in New Zealand

A report on exploring the migrant and refugee experience in New Zealand.

Wong Ah Poo Hoc Ting

The story of Wong Ah Poo Hoc Ting, who jumped ship to become the first Chinese immigrant to New Zealand.

New faces, new futures: New Zealand

The Longitudinal Immigration Survey: New Zealand (LisNZ) is the most comprehensive research study of permanent migrants that has been conducted in New Zealand to date.

History of immigration from New Zealand

Since New Zealand was declared a British colony in 1840 there has been an ongoing exchange of people across the Tasman Sea.

British & Irish immigration, 1840-1914

Who were the ancestors of Pakeha New Zealand?

The first 4 ships

A series of articles on the Canterbury Association's first 4 ships.

Auckland's Asian population

An overview of Asian Auckland.

Pacific Auckland

An overview of Pacific peoples in Auckland.

German settlement in Nelson

Nelson's earliest German settlers faced disappointment and hardship and were driven away from the Moutere Valley by poor soil and constant floods.

The great migration

An overview of the migration from Scotland to Northland via Nova Scotia.

Why migrants make good kiwis

Simply by moving here, immigrants have helped shape the forces that make up modern New Zealand.

Aotearoa New Zealand has long been a country people have chosen to immigrate to.

Immigration, 1840-1914

British & Irish immigration, 1840-1914.

This documentary chronicles the controversial mid-70s raids on the homes and workplaces of alleged Pacific Island overstay

Coming to live in New Zealand

Arriving in New Zealand it can be confusing knowing where to start once you step off that plane.

Living in New Zealand

Here is a selection of living in New Zealand experiences submitted by our readers. They are real stories, warts and all, written by real people.

New Zealand wants domestic servants

New Zealand wants domestic servants

This poster reveals New Zealand’s need for domestic servants early last century. The poster was designed to entice unmarried British women to come and work in New Zealand. The large house, attracti...

Ticket for John Jesson's voyage

Ticket for John Jesson's voyage

This is a photograph of a ticket issued by Henry H. Willis & Co, to John Jesson for travelling on board the sailing ship Joseph Fletcher to New Zealand. The ship was to leave London, England, on th...

Here and there

This 1848 cartoon from Punch, (a weekly British magazine first published in 1841) reveals two contrasting scenes. On the left, (Here), a homeless family of parents and their four barefooted ragged ...

Still they come

Still they come

Some people thought that too many Chinese were arriving in New Zealand in the early 1900s. This racist cartoon shows Chinese men leaping over a wall marked New Zealand. They are watched in horror b...

Diary page with three portraits

Diary page with 3 portraits

Some colonists like William Bambridge kept shipboard diaries when they came to New Zealand. They not only recorded their thoughts and feelings but also life on board a sailing ship. Some even inclu...

Diary fragments including sketches of flying fish and squid

Fragments of a diary

This shipboard diary covers approximately 12 Jan to 5 May 1842. It describes life on a sailing ship and is illustrated with sketches of land and bird life. The second sketch is of a flying fish. Tw...

Life on board an emigrant ship

Life on board an emigrant ship

Voyaging to New Zealand on a sailing ship was often a mix of boredom, danger and excitement as the above illustration shows. There were fierce storms but also times when sailing ships were becalmed...

Emigrant ship Ellen Lewis

Emigrant ship Ellen Lewis

Setting sail on 17 December 1859, this ship, (the Ellen Lewis) arrived in Auckland on 14 May 1860, a trip that took over 5 months. In that time there were 4 births onboard and 3 young children died...

Wanganui pioneers

Wanganui pioneers

This outdoor portrait shows a family of Wanganui pioneer immigrants in the 1870s along with their prized possessions. In the background is a toi toi decoration while the family’s sewing machine is ...

New Year's Eve

Shows passengers relaxing on a ship's upper deck, with birds and a dog. There is a ship's bell inscribed "Royal Dan", presumably for Royal Dane, the name of the sailing ship. Passengers include one...

The true pioneer

The true pioneer

These 3 scenes show idealised versions of colonisation in New Zealand, by European settlers. The top panel shows the "true pioneer", the surveyor, camped in the forest. The second panel reveals "th...

I said WOGS not dogs

I said WOGS not dogs

The New Zealand Minister of Immigration (Bill Birch) reprimands a policeman, who has impounded dogs instead of ‘wogs.’ A wog was a derogatory term here meaning Polynesian would-be immigrants who ha...

Sowing for a spring crop

Sowing for a spring crop

This cartoon shows the leader of New Zealand First, Winston Peters, with a large bag (called xenophobia) full of seeds strapped around his waist. Winston Peters is sowing the seeds in furrows, whic...

English immigrant women from the Atlantis

English immigrant women from the Atlantis

After World War II the Government financially helped migrants to settle in New Zealand due to labour shortages. This was called assisted immigration and over 76,000 people took advantage of it. Amo...

Refugees (New Zealand)

Where can I find information about refugees coming to and living in New Zealand?

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