Promise that is Kiwiland

New Zealand, with more sheep than people, remains a preferred destination for many Indians. Arvind Bhandari reports on the possibilities in Maori land

HAVE you ever heard of such rib-tickling names as Papa Ti Toi and Ota Hu Hu? These are the Maori names of Sikh ghettos in Auckland, which is the biggest city of New Zealand. Between them, Papa Toi Toi and Ota Hu Hu have five gurdwaras. The streets are teeming with turbaned sardarjis and their sardarnis, invariably clad in salwar-kameez. Here you can get samosas, puri-chhole and lassi as easily as in Amritsar. Sikhs can be seen driving taxis and doing all sorts of menial jobs, which they do not hesitate to take up.

New Zealand has more Indians—estimated to be about 40,000—than is generally known. Since their number is not insubstantial, they protested vociferously when the Government of India recently excluded New Zealand from the list of countries whose PIOs (persons of Indian origin) would be considered for dual citizenship.

Most Indians live in Auckland, whose Mount Roskill area is called "Little India." In fact, Indians in Mount Roskill have begun to outnumber Whites so heavily that the latter have begun to move out of the area. A number of Sikhs in the Hamilton province, whose ancestors migrated to New Zealand two or three generations ago, are prosperous landowners. A sizable number of Indians also live in Palmerston North and the capital city of Wellington. The southern island, which is almost completely White-dominated, has few Indians.

New Zealand is an under-populated country, with 15 sheep to one man. Although New Zealand’s geographical area is larger than that of England, it has a population of only 4 million. Therefore, immigration has been a major issue in New Zealand politics because the New Zealanders are worried at the smallness of the country’s population and the threat to it by emigration a few years ago. There was a substantial inflow of Asians, Indians being prominent among them, a few years back. The number of Whites who availed of the liberalisation could be counted on fingertips.

The large inflow of immigrants, especially many professionally well-qualified Indians, has led to a discordant situation. They are not able to get jobs commensurate with their qualifications. I met a Phd driving a taxi and an MBA working as a waiter. Helen Clark’s Government has been bombarded by petitions from frustrated job-seekers. Not a few immigrants have thrown in the towel and returned to their home countries.

The main reason for the difficulties being faced by immigrants in getting proper jobs is to be found in New Zealand’s lop-sided development. New Zealand is almost entirely a dairy products country and there is a very small manufacturing sector. In 2002, New Zealand produced 398,000 tonne of butter, 312,000 tonne of cheese, 1298,000 tonne of meat and 174,000 tonne of wool. The share of manufacturing in New Zealand’s GDP has dropped to 16 per cent at present from 28 per cent two decades ago. It is noteworthy that New Zealanders depend on import of second-hand cars from Japan as there is no indigenous automobile Industry.

A second reason for the difficulties being faced by Indians in getting jobs is the bizarre stance adopted by prospective employers. They reject candidates who are otherwise fully qualified on the ground that they have no "New Zealand experience". The job-seeking Indians insist that this is nothing but racialism in disguise.

Apart from dairy products, New Zealand has been concentrating on what it calls "export of education". It is tell-tale that a country as small as New Zealand has eight full-fledged universities. In addition, there is the high-profile government-funded Universal College of Learning (UCOL). New Zealand has 80000 foreign students. The fee they pay constitutes an important source of revenue for the country.

I visited the UCOL campus in Palmerston North. Bruce Osborne, Dircetor of International Business, told me that UCOL was an institute of technology which focused on producing "vocation-ready" students. Of the 5000 students in UCOL, about 300 were foreigners. I met two students, both from Punjab. They were studying applied information systems.

Unlike the aborigines in Australia, the Maoris in New Zealand, who comprise about 20 per cent of the population, have demonstrated an amazing assertiveness in the face of the White man’s colonising designs. The treaty of Watangi was signed in 1840 between Maori tribes and representatives of the British Crown. But there was no cessation of hostilities. Between 1840 and 1845, Maoris lost 33000 hectares of land in and around Auckland to the invading British. When Queen Elizabeth visited New Zealand a few years ago, she tendered an apology to Maoris for the atrocities committed by the British colonisers. This has, however, not assuaged the feelings of Maoris, who are now demanding compensation from the government in Wellington.

Maoris speak pidgin English, till land and do menial jobs. Among themselves they speak a strange language. Big-built and obese, Maoris are given to hard drinking and heavy smoking. Therefore, their longevity is short. As a concession to Maori sentiments, the White-dominated New Zealand government has retained many Maori names.

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