The Greek, Italian and Polish Communities in New Zealand: a Geographical Contribution to the Study of Ethnic Migration, Settlement and Adjustment

Abstract

The work systematically studies the adjustment of three of the larger Continental European groups in New Zealand to the New Zealand environment. The environment includes both the physical and societal elements, and although the spatial components of the environment are those given most detailed attention, societal elements are also evaluated. Similarly, in the study of the adjustment patterns of the three ethnic groups, social structure and adjustment is surveyed for spatial adjustment does not occur in isolation but in relation to social and economic adjustment. The groups are studied in the following sequence: origins and the form of migration, settlement form and occupational and social adjustment of the respective communities. Migration is seen as a movement through space and also as a social process: a major theme is the movement of peasants from a rural social system to an urban societal system. Several hypotheses are formulated early in the work; some were that migration form is a determinant of settlement form and adjustment; that a particular form of migration, “chain migration” leads to more nucleated and concentrated settlement pattern than other forms; that Time is of major importance in the residential adjustment of ethnic communities in the city – through time, ethnic groups become more dispersed and residentially integrated with the host society. It was found that migration form was a determinant of residential and occupational adjustment and that chain migration led to the most concentrated patterns of settlement in which kinship and common areas of origin were important factors. It was found however that environmental opportunities were also of importance in the adjustment patterns; that the nature of New Zealand urban residential areas with low densities and largely detached or semi-detached dwellings even within inner city areas and economic factors permitting a high degree of private ownership within ethnic neighbourhoods and residential mobility lessened the incidence of residential segregation. It was found that although there was a general relationship between length of residence in New Zealand and degree of dispersion, that this was not the case where ethnic groups had formed sub-systems within society maintaining residential, social and economic isolation through time, and which were sustained by continuing chain migration. In these instances, there was a strong relationship between residential and occupational concentration, especially if the economic base of the ethnic settlement was different from that of the surrounding host society. Finally, a typology of chain migrant and refugee ethnic settlement in New Zealand is presented and secondary migration processes and settlements are identified. The complex of elements involved in the various adjustments and interactions of the ethnic groups and sub groups of these communities with their environments is discussed, the contributions of social class, demographic, social origin, migration and kinship patterns and environmental opportunities being evaluated. The adjustments of the three communities are compared and further research directions in the field of the ecology of ethnic settlement and adjustment in New Zealand are suggested.