2015 Migration
Human migration can provide opportunities and challenge societies People migrate for a variety of reasons
Alexandria Watson Queen Margaret College
Alexandria Watson: Human migration can provide opportunities and
challenge societies
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Alexandria Watson: Human migration can provide opportunities and
challenge societies
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Alexandria Watson: Human migration can provide opportunities and
challenge societies
Migration and immigration have the tightest bond for you can't do one without doing the other. I am investigating into the reasons why people migrate to New Zealand and the opportunities they have coming here and how immigration benefits New Zealand. To find answers to my questions I researched a variety of web sites and interviewed some immigrants and a member of parliament. Why do people migrate from one place to another? Social migration, when moving somewhere for a better quality of life or to be closer to family or friends Political migration, when moving to escape political persecution or war. Environmental causes of migration include natural disasters, such as flooding. The reasons why people leave an area are: • lack of services • lack of safety • high crime • crop failure • drought • flooding • poverty • war The reasons why people move to an area or country are: • higher employment • more wealth 3
Alexandria Watson: Human migration can provide opportunities and
challenge societies • • • • • •
better services good climate safer, less crime political stability more fertile land lower risk from natural hazards
Key immigration trends
Looking at the illustration above, possible reasons for immigration at these times could be: 1918-‐1919-‐ this was the end of WW1 and many people would have lost their families and homes as a result of the war 1930-‐1940's-‐ this is around the time of WW2. The Jews leaving for USA would have left because they were persecuted 1950-‐1960-‐ Western European countries had a labour shortage so they recruited workers and their families from North Africa 1950-‐1960-‐ West Indies became independent from Britain, so citizens returned to UK or emigrated to seek better educational opportunities 1973-‐60,000 Ugandan Asians were expelled by President Idi Amin 1975-‐Vietnamese people left their country as a result of the Vietnam War From <http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/geography/migration/migration_trends_rev1.shtml>
I interviewed an MP, Paul Foster Bell, and I asked him if he thinks people migrate to New Zealand because it is a Commonwealth country. The Commonwealth has 53 countries as members, who in the past were part of the British Commonwealth. Sixteen of these countries, New Zealand included, have Queen Elizabeth as their head. He thought that because NZ is a member 4
Alexandria Watson: Human migration can provide opportunities and
challenge societies
of the Commonwealth, it is easier for migrants from other Commonwealth countries to settle here because the same language is spoken and the countries are governed in a similar way. He said that the good lifestyle, healthcare and education attracts migrants to New Zealand. He also said immigrants can bring in new skills and different cultures, which can benefit our country. In his opinion the process of immigrating to New Zealand is easy and being able to apply on-‐line means that decisions can be made quicker. However, he said, at the same time the government must keep the country safe and do proper checks so people come in for the right reasons.
Why do people migrate to New Zealand? One hundred thousand people migrated to New Zealand in 2014, as seen on the graph below.
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Alexandria Watson: Human migration can provide opportunities and
challenge societies
I decided to interview my classmates , friends from church and members of the public to find out why they chose to migrate to New Zealand, and in particular to Wellington.
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Alexandria Watson: Human migration can provide opportunities and
challenge societies
How does being a citizen of a commonwealth country influence people's migration decisions and opportunities? World-‐class education New Zealand offers an excellent education system. In fact, the OECD calls New Zealand a “top performing country” amongst developed nations for the quality of our education. Add in a safe learning environment and a healthy dose of the outdoor recreation available in our wide open spaces, and you have a recipe for producing resourceful and confident young adults ready to take on the world.
Low population density Humans have a much smaller footprint on New Zealand than in many countries. So it’s easy to lose the crowds and have the wide open spaces to yourself. Size-‐wise we’re slightly larger than the UK and slightly smaller than Japan. But we have a fraction of their populations, just 4.5m. 7
Alexandria Watson: Human migration can provide opportunities and
challenge societies
So, on average you’ll find just 16 people for every square kilometer in New Zealand. That compares to 253 in the UK and 337 in Japan.
This chart and the chart a booth it shows you how many have moved to New Zealand and where they are from. Bibliography for question 1 <https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=paul+foster+bell+mp&biw=1024&bih=505&source=lnms&tbm =isch&sa=X&ved=0CAgQ_AUoA2oVChMIz9irv_z3xwIVQyCmCh35mAAJ> <http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/geography/migration/migration_trends_rev1.shtml>
For this inquiry I interviewed 3 immigrant families who had moved to New Zealand seeking a better life than their country of original. They included a family from South Africa, a family from Sri Lanka and a family from the UK.
The first immigrant moved to NZ from South Africa 3 years ago. She came with her husband and two children and has since has another child. Her reasons for migrating were 'Because we were held up at gunpoint in our house. We knew it wasn’t safe in SA and there was no future for our children.' Her reasons for choosing to come to New Zealand were because it is safe, they had family here, the outdoor lifestyle and there is a lot of things to do here. 8
Alexandria Watson: Human migration can provide opportunities and
challenge societies
They think that the benefits of living in Wellington and NZ are that Wellington is a small city but has everything they need and there is so much for the children to do, the weather is not too bad. My husband has a NZ passport so didn’t need to apply for sponsorship through work. In the news there had been a lot about the house prising in Auckland and we had a lot of trouble trying to buy a house because we can’t buy for a long time. We spent all our savings moving here so we have to save before we can buy a house and to make mater worse there are too many people looking for houses and too few houses.
The second family I interviewed came to New Zealand about 2 years ago from Sri Lanka. She came with her husband and two children.
She had to leave her country because it was going through a civil war. There was terrorism, the country was unstable and bombs were going off. The children needed a more stable environment and freedom. At first they didn’t plan to come here. Lots of people from Sri Lanka go to UK, Canada or Australia. They had visited Australia but didn’t like it. They thought it too busy in Sydney so NZ was one option. "My brother came to NZ for a year and enjoyed it.' The immigration process is very expensive and complicated if you want to go to the UK, Australia and Canada. For her the benefits of living in Wellington and NZ are it is a stable, peaceful -‐good life – not fast paced type of place and it was better than Australia because it is not as busy, making more time for nature, outdoor life and good lifestyle. Coming to a commonwealth country didn’t play a big part in the decision. The family thought that a good lifestyle is more important. They also think that better schooling and curriculum and the biggest opportunity for the children is important. At first they looked to rent a house. They found a house fairly quickly but there was some racism towards renting to an Asian family so they ended up renting an expensive house. Now they own a house that they could afford. The last immigrant I interviewed came to NZ from the UK about 18 months ago. He is here with his wife and two children. They left the UK because they wanted to travel and have an adventure. They choose New Zealand because it looked like a beautiful country and also they 9
Alexandria Watson: Human migration can provide opportunities and
challenge societies
choose an English speaking country so they wouldn't have to learn the language. The mother in the family worked as a Mid-‐wife and New Zealand needed mid-‐wives so they could find work here. They all found that New Zealand was a delightful country, people were very friendly and there were less social problems than back in the UK. Coming to New Zealand was influenced by the fact that New Zealand is a commonwealth country so it makes immigration slightly easier. There were some problems for them moving to New Zealand. It was not easy to find a house because they only wanted to rent for a short time and they had a dog. Landlords didn't want to rent to people with a dog. When they finally bought their own house it was quite straight forward. All three immigrant families have happily settled here and enjoy their lives. They have found it quite easy to settle and none of them plan to return to their home countries.
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Alexandria Watson: Human migration can provide opportunities and
challenge societies
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Alexandria Watson: Human migration can provide opportunities and
challenge societies
Reasons why people chose NZ
OUT DOOR ACTIVITIES 12
Alexandria Watson: Human migration can provide opportunities and
challenge societies
THINGS FOR CHILDREN TO DO
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Alexandria Watson: Human migration can provide opportunities and
challenge societies
Life and work balanced
Safe
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Alexandria Watson: Human migration can provide opportunities and
challenge societies
Live by the sea
No guns
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Alexandria Watson: Human migration can provide opportunities and
challenge societies
Right to go to school
Good weather
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Alexandria Watson: Human migration can provide opportunities and
challenge societies
No pollution
To conclude I have learnt a lot because when I started this investigation I thought it would be a very straight forward and easy topic to investigate. I have learnt that there are lots of different types of migration and that people migrated many different
I have truly enjoyed this topic and I am curious to find out more.
Migration and immigration have the tightest bond for you can't go through migration without going through immigration. My first question, what is migration and what causes it has really impacted my learning and helped me to understand this investigation better. The interview with Paul Foster Bell was a very good source of information for me so that answer what the benefits were of when someone migrated to NZ. 17
Alexandria Watson: Human migration can provide opportunities and
challenge societies
I enjoyed working in a group because we can always go to each other for help. Bibliography <https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=paul+foster+bell+mp&biw=1024&bih=505&source=lnms&tbm =isch&sa=X&ved=0CAgQ_AUoA2oVChMIz9irv_z3xwIVQyCmCh35mAAJ> <http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/geography/migration/migration_trends_rev1.shtml> <http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/geography/migration/migration_trends_rev1.shtml> Interviews
Paul foster bell 3 immigrant to NZ
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