Adolescent Gujurati Indians in New Zealand : their socialisation and education

Abstract

This study explores questions concerning the education of young New Zealand Gujurati Indians - the social experience of their schooling, the influence of the school system and the formal curriculum on their socialisation and their socialisation within their own home and community. More than eighty per cent of the Indian population in New Zealand come from the province of Gujurat in Western India. The New Zealand education system plays an important part for these people because it is the main means by which younger immigrants are introduced to the dominant culture of the host society. All secondary schools in the greater Wellington area were contacted for Gujurati Indian pupils in the fifth form year. In total, thirty eight Gujurati pupils were interviewed as per an interview schedule. The interviews were generally a half an hour to an hour long. The data was analysed descriptively and qualitatively. The first part of this study introduces the Gujurati Indian community in New Zealand and a brief background of their history of migration is given. A discussion of the relevant studies of immigrant Indian communities follows. Questions raised in this study for research are outlined in the next section and results given. A discussion of these results follows with conclusions drawn in the study as a whole. It was found that the Gujurati adolescents participate in and identify with both their own ethnic group and their adopted society. However, they do not seem to be firmly embedded in one group i.e. their own Gujurati community, participating in the other i.e. the New Zealand western society, to a slightly lesser degree. These children are acutely aware of the boundaries of participation that they are allowed to enter into before the bridge of conflict needs crossing.