Kiwi African migrants hit back at Trump's 'shithole' comment

Sudan-born New Zealander Amir Bashir has carved a successful career in the tech space. Photo/Supplied.

A Sudanese migrant who moved to New Zealand at the age of 14 says he wasn't surprised by Trump's "shithole" comment but says it has offended a lot of people.

Trump made headlines last week after he insulted immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries during a meeting with lawmakers in the Oval Office.

Trump grew frustrated when they floated restoring protections for immigrants from these countries as part of a bipartisan immigration deal.

"Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" Trump said.

He later denied using the word "shithole", but numerous lawmakers - both Democrats and Republicans - confirmed he did.

Amir Bashir, the chief technology officer at KiwiSaver provider Simplicity, said the fact that the comments came from Trump gave it less credibility.

"I thought: "there he goes again". But it definitely has offended a lot of people."

Bashir, who came to New Zealand with his parents and seven siblings, said it was hard to comprehend that a president would say such a thing.

He said migrants took a big risk moving to another country. For his family it had certainly paid off.

Bashir's oldest brother is a pharmacist who owns his own pharmacy in Auckland, he has another brother who is a lawyer and a younger sister who is an environmental engineer with Beca.

He found New Zealand to be a welcoming place although other friends said they still faced challenges at times.

Bashir said he would absolutely recommend New Zealand take on other migrants from Africa.

"There are a lot talented people out there who just need an opportunity."

Samuel Ekundayo, a lecturer in project management, at the Auckland campus of the Eastern Institute of Technology, said while Trump was known to say things without thinking the "shithole" comments were derogatory.

Nigerian-born lecturer Samuel Ekundayo slammed the comments made by Trump.

Ekundayo, who originally comes from Nigeria, but came to New Zealand via Singapore to undertake a doctorate at AUT in 2008, said Trump needed to stop generalising and apologise.

"When you call a whole continent a "shithole" just because of one or two bad eggs."

"The world should make him apologise...and let him know such comments are no longer tenable."

He said any other individual not in that office who made those kind of comments would bare the brunt of their actions.

Ekundayo said fortunately New Zealand was much more accepting of people from Africa compared to many other countries.

"I came from Singapore where I did my masters. New Zealand is vastly different. The difference in terms of acceptance of people who come from Africa is massive."