This CaDDANZ newsletter was initially scheduled to be released in March 2020 but has been delayed as Aotearoa New Zealand entered a significant period of disruption in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, border closure and lockdown.
The COVID-19 pandemic and response impinges significantly on many of the key concerns of CaDDANZ researchers—population, equity, diversity and migration—and several members of our team have been involved in public commentary on the issues and implications that emerge. These contributions are discussed in a special section in this newsletter.
The Aotearoa Migration Research Network has now had three seminars in 2020. Jessica Terruhn presented on ‘Diversity and equality in visions of neighbourhood renewal' on 3rd March; Teena Brown Pulu and Harminder Singh presented on ‘Mobile Communities: Rural Punjab and South Auckland Sikhs’ on 7th April; and Sarah Jane Lipura presented on ‘Mobilities in a state of pandemic and immobility: Reflections of an international student’ on the 5th of May. Recordings of all presentations can be found on the AMRN Facebook page.
Take care and stay well.
Ngā mihi nui
Francis Collins.
COVID-19 and CaDDANZ
Tahu Kukutai has published an article co-authored with a range of researchers that addresses the ‘Estimated inequities in COVID-19 infection fatality rates by ethnicity for Aotearoa New Zealand’. The paper combined demographic and health data for ethnic groupings in Aotearoa New Zealand with international data on IFR for different age groups to estimate inequities in IFR by ethnicity. The analysis found that, if age is the dominant factor determining IFR, estimated IFR for Māori is around 50% higher than non-Māori. If underlying health conditions are more important than age per se, then estimated IFR for Māori is more than 2.5 times that of New Zealand European, and estimated IFR for Pasifika is almost double that of New Zealand European. IFRs for Māori and Pasifika are likely to be increased above these estimates by racism within the healthcare system and other inequities not reflected in official data. IFR does not account for differences among ethnicities in COVID-19 incidence, which could be higher in Māori and Pasifika as a result of crowded housing and higher inter-generational contact rates. These factors should be included in future disease incidence modelling. The communities at the highest risk will be those with elderly populations, and Māori and Pasifika communities, where the compounded effects of underlying health conditions, socioeconomic disadvantage, and structural racism result in imbricated risk of contracting COVID-19, becoming unwell, and death.
Overviews of key findings from the research are described in discussions on podcasts availabel at Te Hiku Media and a story with Waatea News.
Paul Spoonley featured on an episode of Nine to Noon on Radio New Zealand discussing the relationship between global mobility and immigration. Paul was also featured in a New Zealand Herald article commenting on the socio-economic dimensions of COVID-19 and the outcomes in people’s behaviour.
Michael Cameron has written about ‘The Economics of COVID-19 policy’ in a new post on his regular blog Sex, Drugs and Economics.
Francis Collins authored an article in The Conversationexploring the impacts of COVID-19 on temporary migration and the need for the government to provide health, security of status and greater rights and inclusion to people on temporary work, study and visitor visas. Francis also contributed to TVNZ’s Q&A discussion of migration and COVID-19, which screened on 4th May 2020 and is available to view on TVNZ on demand.
Former CaDDANZ Science Leader, Jacques Poot was featured in a discussion in the Financial Times [paywalled] about the consequences of COVID-19 on migration and the potential for Aotearoa New Zealand to be a more attractive destination because of its successful response to the pandemic.
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
Special Edition of NZ Population Review released
Capturing the diversity dividend? Diversity matters in Aotearoa/New Zealand
Guest edited by Jessica Terruhn and Arama Rata
This special issue of the New Zealand Population Review engages with the notion of migration-led diversity, the ways in which it matters and comes to matter in 21st century Aotearoa New Zealand. It features ten articles written by members of the CaDDANZ research team highlighting the variety of disciplines, knowledge and research expertise within our team. Included are critical perspectives on extractive discourses of ‘diversity’ and immigration; technical approaches to measuring population diversity; analysis of policy discourses on ‘social cohesion’; and the deployment of whakawhanaungatanga as a framework for building relationships between Māori and tauiwi of colour. View the full issue here
The CaDDANZ team L-R: Julie Taylor, Francis Collins, Trudie Cain, Renae Dixon, Jessica Terruhn, Dave Mare, Myk Cameron, Geoff Stone, Tahu Kukutai, Arama Rata, Paul Spoonley
Absent: Robin Peace, Natalie Jackson, Lars Brabyn and John Ryks.
Journal Articles
Towards an integrative understanding of contemporary educational mobilities: a critical agenda for international student mobilities research Sarah Jane Lipura and Francis Collins
The study of international student mobilities (ISM) has increased substantially over the last two decades. Following trends in institutional and policy debates on the broader internationalisation of education, researchers have paid considerable attention to questions about why, where, how and under what circumstances people engage in educational migration. As the field of ISM has matured, however, it has also taken shape around distinct frameworks wherein little cross-fertilisation appears to be occurring and where a series of normative narratives have emerged. This paper evaluates the extant scholarship on ISM and argue that there are significant blind spots in current research and that there is a need for a greater focus on interdisciplinary conversations that can address the changing characteristics of educational migration internationally. For link to the full-text please click here
The good migrant: Everyday nationalism and temporary migration management on New Zealand dairy farms
Francis Collins and Thomas Bayliss
Migration regimes that prioritise temporary and restricted work status have become increasingly prevalent globally. Temporary migration schemes that prioritise labour market flexibility, skills assessment and a reduced social burden, insert both legal and social stratification into the workplace and community through the restricted rights and future pathways available to migrants. Our contention in this paper is that in addition to their economic rationalities, such stratifications also take shape around governmental and popular articulations of nationalism that support and justify the differential inclusion of migrants as labour. In order to explore this intersection between nationalism and temporary migration management we focus on dairy farming in New Zealand, a key export industry that is often closely tied to national futures and identities, yet has come to rely on the presence of a substantial labour force of work visa holders who have limited rights and only very narrow pathways to longer term residence. We draw on interviews with people holding work visas, employers and intermediaries to draw attention to the way national stereotypes are created, accepted, and used to legitimise workplace inequalities within temporary migration schemes. National stereotyping had significant impacts on workplace hiring queues and segmentation, with key migrants, host communities and immigration practices commonly ignoring or downplaying the significance of the socio-cultural assumptions on which national stereotypes rest. This account demonstrates the need for greater understanding of the socio-cultural basis of ostensibly economically oriented migration regimes, the legitimation of stratification and the role of identity in negotiating temporally constrained labour migration. For link to the full-text please click here
Project Briefs
The CaDDANZ team has been releasing a series of project briefs that provide a snapshot of key findings from research undertaken within some of our projects. We will be sharing these briefs across many forums, including this newsletter and the CaDDANZ website. As always, if you have any questions about the projects or just want to know more please send us an email (renae.dixon@waikato.ac.nz or j.m.taylor@massey.ac.nz) or alternatively you can get in touch with the authors directly. Project briefs will be made available on the CaDDANZ website once published: http://www.caddanz.org.nz
In this newsletter we profile brief number seven:
Māori heterogenteity in regional Aotearoa New Zealand: An exploratory study
This brief discusses work undertaken to map the heterogeneity of the Māori population across regional Aotearoa New Zealand. It reflects on the impacts of the rural-urban migration on Māori over time and through the use of iwi census data and spatial analysis, maps the distribution of mana whenua and mātāwaka populations at a regional level. The results of the research inform a discussion about the rights and interests of Māori in regional development at a time when many regional settlements are either being enveloped by urban growth or are isolated and unsupported. Understanding the heterogeneity of Māori in regional Aotearoa New Zealand is both an under-researched topic and an often-ignored issue in policy making and local government planning, where a homogenous Māori population is typically assumed.
Recent Media Commentary
Far-right Extremists still threaten New Zealand, a year on from the Christchurch attacks
Professor Spoonley has researched far-right extremism for decades and argues that it remains a high-level threat in New Zealand. One year on he admits that New Zealand has made progress on greater awareness and action over far-right groups - but we need to do more.
To read more click here
Employers use immigration rules as 'leverage' over migrant workers
Francis Collins talks with "Stuff" reporter Harrison Christian about some of the findings from the Migrant Exploitation study and how recent policy changes has exacerbated this issue.
Aotearoa Migration Research Network The Aotearoa Migration Research Network seeks to support social science research that addresses the diversity of issues involved in moving in the world: the drivers and barriers to migration, the role of borders and state control, the lives, identities and aspirations of migrants, the role of migration in communities and economies and the emergence of diverse, multicultural and transnational social formations.
The network runs a regular online (via Zoom) seminar series which provides a forum for established and emerging researchers as well as representatives of migrant communities, and policy makers and practitioners working with migrants to share insights from new research and create dialogue.
To keep up with migration research news and upcoming seminars, please join the network’s facebook group
The network has hosted three seminars in 2020
Diversity and equality in visions of neighbourhood renewal presented by Dr. Jessica Terruhn
Mobile Communities: Rural Punjab and South Auckland Sikhs presented by Dr Teena Brown Pulu & Associate Professor Harminder Singh (AUT)
Mobilities in a state of pandemic and immobility: Reflections of an international student presented by Sarah Lipura
All have been recorded and can be found on our Facebook page or via this link
The network is co-convened by Dr Jessica Terruhn who works as a Senior Researcher on the CaDDANZ research team at Massey University in Auckland, and Dr Shemana Cassim who is a Research Fellow at the University of Waikato.
The Aotearoa Migration Research Network seeks to support social science research that addresses the diversity of issues involved in moving in the world: the drivers and barriers to migration, the role of borders and state control, the lives, identities and aspirations of migrants, the role of migration in communities and economies and the emergence of diverse, multicultural and transnational social formations.
