A melting pot culture to cherish

Sakthi Krishnamurthi. Photo / Richard Robinson.

Auckland's geographically segregated ethnic communities are yearning for a Super City that may help to bring a sense of unity.

"Certain areas of Auckland are labelled," said Manurewa resident Sakthi Krishnamurthi, who came from India in 1984 and tutors in social science at Manukau Institute of Technology.

"If you look at Remuera in contrast to Botany Downs and South Auckland, the location itself seems to identify the ethnic community - Pakuranga all Chinese, South Auckland all Islanders. We are all labelled."

The new Auckland Super City will be one of the world's most ethnically diverse cities. Sociologist Paul Spoonley has calculated that our 37 per cent foreign-born share of the population is the world's sixth-highest, along with Vancouver.

In this sample of 300 people, the 123 people born overseas came from 33 countries, with the highest numbers from Britain (25), India (13), Fiji and Samoa (9 each), China or Hong Kong (8) and South Africa (7).

Here by choice, they are more passionate local patriots than many of the native-born. Five out of six (84 per cent) consider themselves "Aucklanders", only just behind the 103 people born in Auckland (86 per cent) and well ahead of the 74 people born elsewhere in New Zealand, only 61 per cent of whom accept the label "Aucklander".

Almost two-thirds of them (65 per cent) rate the state of the Auckland region as "good" or better, more than the number of Auckland-born (56 per cent) and just behind other native Kiwis (70 per cent).

Many, such as Samoan-born security officer Daniel Ah-Chong, 21, compare Auckland favourably to poorer homelands left behind.

"From Samoa this is opportunities, everything is much better, so I'm very appreciative of the level I'm getting," he said.

Most are cautiously positive about their place in our society.

"You can find a lot of different cultures, I think they handle very well," said Sandra Kelly, 45, a Mexican shop assistant who came here with her Kiwi husband three years ago.

"There's a good amount of integration, people are fairly accepting," echoed Nepalese information technologist Surendra Neupane, 57, also married to a Kiwi.

But Sakthi Krishnamurthi is right about informal segregation. The main minorities are clumped, notably in three of the 21 new local boards - Pacific Islanders in Mangere-Otahuhu (where they are 59 per cent of the population) and Otara-Papatoetoe (46 per cent); Asians in Puketapapa (Mt Roskill), where they are 40 per cent of the population.

At the other extreme, Europeans are still more than 90 per cent of the population in the two northernmost boards, Rodney and Hibiscus and Bays, and on Waiheke and Great Barrier Islands.

Maori are more evenly spread, peaking at 28 per cent in both Manurewa and Papakura.

Grey Lynn superannuitant Luxshmi Keshav, 69, was born in Taranaki, has lived in Auckland since the 1950s and feels that ethnic divisions have hardened with the recent influx of migrants.

"Forty years ago everyone lived in harmony. Now there are so many ethnic groups and nationalities that have gone out on their own," she said.

"I have grandchildren. I don't want them to grow up with the stigma of 'You are this and you are that.' My kids didn't."

Indian-born Mt Roskill IT worker Shanthosh Krishna, 38, said the whole Indian community now felt "slightly insecure" after several recent murders of Indian immigrants.

A handful of native-born Kiwis feel equally insecure about the immigrants. Nine of the 177 NZ-born in this sample (5 per cent) expressed concerns about migrants taking jobs or houses or, as 43-year-old Glen Eden nurse Caroline put it, "the calibre of the immigrants" who go on welfare. "That's what pisses me off with New Zealand - the handouts to the foreigners. The Kiwis get nothing," she said.

On the other hand, for several younger people, diversity is part of Auckland's attraction. Jessica Krause, a 19-year-old who came from Palmerston North this year to study biomedical science, said: "I like how it's really multicultural."

"The ethnic diversity is just amazing here, you can get any food you like," said Manurewa call centre operator Alexander Laughland, 37.

Eighteen out of 215 Europeans and Maori in the sample (8 per cent), as well as 13 Asians and Pacific people, chose "making Auckland's diverse ethnic communities feel more a part of the city" as one of their top three priorities for the Super City

"We are very, very diverse, but the community clearly has to come together in unity," said Tim Lester, 55, pastor of the multicultural Birkenhead Baptist Church.

"If people don't belong, they don't add anything," said Weymouth sales manager Kimberley Dyson, 45.

And Mike Morrison, a doctor who lives at Whitford and works in Manurewa, warned against slipping any further into segregation like many overseas cities.

"There is some segregation and that is normal in any community," he said. "But I think people are generally pretty accepting of everyone. I think that is just a New Zealand characteristic. We don't want to lose that."

'Yes I'm an Aucklander'

- 86% of those born in Auckland

- 84% of those born overseas

- 61% of those born elsewhere in NZ