Moral Hazard, Ethnicity and Barriers to Disaster Recovery: How Institutions Fail to Identify Risk and Mitigate Minority Vulnerability in Post-Quake Christchurch

Abstract

This study primarily aims to evaluate how disaster vulnerability is made up among ethnic minorities in post-quake Christchurch. It aims to establish how well disaster management institutions are performing in managing these barriers and reducing the risk and exposure of minorities to hardship post-disaster. A moral hazard occurs when institutions neglect the most vulnerable stakeholders simply because minorities occupy socially, ideologically, economically, politically and culturally inferior positions. A mixed-method approach is used in this study. Disaster vulnerability is determined from an analysis of quantitative data (e.g. minority population mapped against variables such as social deprivation, liquefaction hazards and soil quality). Evaluation of barriers and strategies/drivers is qualitative and performed through extensive field interviews with practitioners and community members, participant observation and participant photo-journaling activities. Findings strongly suggest that ethnic minority people face many barriers to post-disaster resources and that disaster recovery institutions enforce allocation mechanisms that have discriminatory impacts on marginalized ethnic minorities. This illustrates the moral hazard argument which exists primarily at the policy level. Although emerging networks of post-disaster governance among civil society actors have emerged to fill these policy gaps, these developments are limited to emergency response and do not cater to long term recovery. New Zealand should develop more equitable and normatively appropriate disaster recovery policies to ensure that postdisaster recovery is sustainable and meaningful to the most vulnerable.