Abstract:
Inclusion has framed social policy in New Zealand for well over a decade, both through what are seen as the ‘boom years’ of the left Coalition Helen Clark government (1999-2008) and the recessionary period during the moderate right National-led government (2008- present). This emphasis on inclusion is particularly significant in the late 20th and early 21st century as the population in New Zealand diversified with increased volumes of in-migration from Asia that has had marked social and political implications. By and large, New Zealand has embraced its growing diversity; as nation-states in Europe tighten regulations around multicultural expression and a enforce common national identity, New Zealand continues to encourage policy frameworks that acknowledge cultural pluralism. This paper explores the antecedents underpinning the rhetoric of diversity in New Zealand, and their implications for its contemporary practice. It argues that the government’s framework of cultural pluralism has not emerged fortuitously but rather is located at a particular historical moment of the country’s transition. In the past decade New Zealand has been reinventing its geo-political identity as an Asia-Pacific nation. Central to this repositioning has been its developing relationships with emerging economies like China and India; these links have informed a view of diversity that is heavily imbued with bilateral economic and political expediency. This paper points to the opportunities and limitations of ‘neoliberal’ multiculturalism in the New Zealand state’s domestic policies.