Segregation on the move in Auckland

By JO-MARIE BROWN and ANGELA GREGORY

Auckland is becoming more racially segregated, as rising house prices force many ethnic groups out of inner suburbs.

A year-long Auckland University study has mapped demographic, economic and social change in the city between 1986 and 1996 and confirms that "racial clusters" have formed.

A Social Atlas of Auckland, written by four geography department lecturers, found Auckland's European population dominate the North Shore, Eastern Bays, Waitakere and Auckland City.

Maori predominantly lived in Manurewa, Massey, Otara and Glen Innes, and the rapidly growing Asian population was centred in Pakuranga and Howick.

Pacific Islanders have been pushed out of Ponsonby and Grey Lynn, where there had been a large community since the 1960s, into areas such as Avondale, Glen Innes, Otara and Mangere.

A Niuean family yesterday told the Herald they had moved to Avondale 10 years ago because they could not afford to stay in Grey Lynn.

Moka Fisimatagi said they lived in a Grey Lynn house owned by the firm for which her husband worked.

"The company needed the house back. We looked at a place nearby in Richmond Rd but it was $300,000."

The mother of three said Avondale was the best affordable choice.

"It was important that our children should go to good schools."

They still found it tough to make ends meet, but were determined not to shift further from the city centre.

Their youngest child needed to be close to Starship Hospital because she had bad asthma.

"My husband has had to take up a second job so we can afford to stay ... It's killing him."

One of the study's authors, Dr Wardlow Friesen, confirmed that the high cost of housing had forced Pacific Islanders out of areas such as Ponsonby, and away from their churches and schools.

"Auckland City calls itself the first city of the Pacific now - that's one of its slogans.

"Yet the irony is that many Pacific Islanders are being pushed out."

Dr Friesen was concerned at the way socio-economic circumstances caused Pacific Island and Maori communities to cluster together in South Auckland.

Educational and employment disadvantages could be passed on through generations, he said.

"All the ghetto societies in the world show that disadvantage is passed down when [a culture] is really concentrated. The idea of entrapment is a problem."

Dr Friesen said a cultural mix was also necessary to help break down stereotypes and improve race relations.

He believed the eastern suburbs' concentration of Asians would diminish over the next 20 years as they came to adopt New Zealand tastes.

Dr Friesen thought it likely they would develop New Zealanders' preference for sea views, and the North Shore would become home to many.

Howick resident John Wang said he would rather live in Epsom because it had a better mix of cultures.

"But compared to Epsom, this place is cheap."

Mr Wang had noticed Auckland becoming more ethnically segregated in the five years since he migrated here from Taiwan.

"I don't like it - there's going to be conflict."

Mr Wang said that in 1995 about half the residents in his street were European - now only about a quarter were.

He made sure his son went to a primary school with a good balance of Caucasian and Asian children.

But the Education Ministry's Mangere and Otara coordinator, Brian Annan, said cultural "clusters" could be beneficial.

"Pacific people themselves are starting to show a keen interest in educational settings designed specifically for Pacific Island and Maori students, and I think that's exciting."