Different people, same goals

Taiwanese migrants are just as diverse as the Kiwis they have come to share their lives with, as GRAHAM REID discovers.

The young man in the baseball cap and baggy pants is laughing when he says it - but he's also sort of serious.

He doesn't much like some of these guys his age who have come from Taiwan in the past few years.

They flash their cash around too much, drive showy cars and don't much care about the environment here.

They are into it for all they can get, and think only of money.

They also have gangs - "but they are pretty juvenile, I'm not into that" - and get into scraps.

Nah, he and his friends laugh, they tend not to hang with those guys at the pool halls or karaoke bars.

The fact that they also come from Taiwan puts an instructive spin on their opinions.

With their buzz cuts, bleached hair, beanies and baggies they are a reminder that to characterise all migrants, even from one particular group, as being the same can be limiting. It denies their individuality and personal experience.

These young men arrived here between 10 and 12 years ago and describe themselves as part-Taiwanese and part-Kiwi because they have lived half their lives in each place.

But they feel they belong here more than in Taipei.

They have been back home a couple of times, but not for a few years and they don't fit in there.

They are certainly glad they didn't have to go to school there. New Zealand schools - and life in general - is much easier.

Encounter any racism at school? A bit, but nothing serious. A couple of fights, but Kiwis are pretty friendly. The young men learned English on arrival, but it took them a bit longer to learn to speak Kiwi. Now, they do it like the locals, mate.

They watch Shortland Street, go to DJ clubs and live in the suburbs. Maybe they will go to Australia after they have finished their Auckland University of Technology courses because they could get better jobs over there, but they laugh about the Australian accent.

They could be any twenty-somethings talking.

But they also point out that New Zealanders don't distinguish between Asians from Hong Kong, China, Taiwan or Korea - and they are very different.

Migrants from Hong Kong and Taiwan, in particular, are more familiar than mainland Chinese with Western culture, says Hsichen Hsieh, one of the editors of the Chinese language Independence Daily. This allows them - especially those who come at an early age - to fit more easily into New Zealand society.

More than 28,000 Taiwanese gained residency approval between 1992 and this year. Ninety per cent of them came under the "general skills" category, compared with 48 per cent of Hong Kong immigrants and 54 per cent from China.

Approvals peaked at 12,325 in the 1995-96 financial year, and fell to 344 in the past financial year.

A considerable number of those who came in the mid-90s have either returned to Taiwan or moved to a more profitable business environment in Australia or Southeast Asia.

Richard Shih, director-general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Auckland, estimates that about 18,000 Taiwanese live in Greater Auckland.

In a paper published by the New Zealand Migration Research Network in May, Dr Manying Ip of the University of Auckland says that while some people say migrants' moves out of New Zealand prove their lack of loyalty, they are doing no more than most New Zealanders - travelling to maximise career opportunities.

A 1997 study she undertook found that British migrants have been far more transient. Half the Britons who migrated here subsequently left long term.

New Asian migrants, however, have an appreciably high "frequent flyer" turnover.

Editor Hsieh says parents of young Taiwanese may well have encouraged their children to return home after graduation to take advantage of better career opportunities in the larger and more buoyant economic climate.

Older migrants who arrived in the past five years have found the economy not as vibrant as expected and have had difficulty starting businesses.

The qualifications that gave them entry into New Zealand make them equally desirable migrants to many other countries, and the fact that they have uprooted themselves once makes it easier for them to do it again.

But if there is one characteristic that characterises Taiwanese migrants who have settled here, it is that most have come for a better quality of life rather than for economic improvement.

The words "education" and "environment" echo like a refrain through conversations with Taiwanese of all ages.

You have to wash your car every day in Taipei, laughs a middle-aged Taiwanese migrant when looking for something to encapsulate why and his family live here.

The best milk in Taiwan comes from New Zealand, says a student at an English college who was drawn here by the advertising and a desire to study outside Taiwan.

Such comments indicate the problems of pollution in Taiwan, which came as the result of extensive economic development, especially around Taipei, in the '70s and '80s.

University of Auckland researcher Tania Boyer, in her 1995 thesis, Instant Kiwis? A study of the migration and adaptation of the Auckland Taiwanese community, found that Taiwanese migrants were motivated by dissatisfaction with what they saw as a decline in the quality of life in Taiwan, and were pulled by a view of New Zealand as having a green, clean environment, a dynamic education system and a favourable immigration policy.

The vagaries of our immigration policies these past five years have changed perceptions of the last factor - many Taiwanese obliquely and politely refer to the anti-immigration statements of New Zealand First leader Winston Peters.

But the other factors remain.

The Taiwanese education system is similar to that of Japan and students face high expectations, pressure to succeed, numerous exams and a competitive school environment.

NZ's system is seen as allowing students more scope for lateral thinking, learning at their own speed and personal growth. New Zealanders are also seen as friendly and casual ... sometimes too casual.

"You don't expect to get much done on a Friday afternoon," laughs Eric Liu, chairman of Auckland's Chinese radio station AM990. "That kind of attitude makes it difficult for some [Taiwanese] people to adjust to the Kiwi mentality."

But then again, you don't have to wash your car quite so often.

The immigrants - a Herald series

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