An interpretive case study of Chinese New Zealanders’ political participation in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

This dissertation explored how first-generation Chinese New Zealanders participated in politics. Chinese New Zealanders account for five per cent of New Zealand’s population, with 73% born overseas. As a group, they are becoming ever-more politically significant. Understanding their political participation helps to better understand New Zealand politics and in particular, better understand the challenges posed to first-generation ethnic minorities. Adopting an interpretivist approach, I analysed interviews conducted with 38 first-generation Chinese immigrants from mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Interviewees participated in a broad range of political activities. Key topics included how interviewees’ institutional political participation dynamically responded to the practice of descriptive representation in formal representative systems. I also explored how activities in Chinese-focused civic associations shaped political participation. Additionally, I investigated how online political participation encouraged Chinese New Zealanders to engage in politics as a form of everyday experience. In sum, I argue that the interviewees were not politically apathetic. They incorporated politics into their daily lives. They participated in politics not only to affect public decision-making but provide welfare demands and protect democratic values and widely shared social norms. My dissertation aimed to enrich the knowledge of Chinese New Zealanders’ political participation. It also aimed to deepen the differences between civic and political participation in an important immigrant community. Interviewees’ political participation illustrated the twofold goals of politics – as both a means to an end, and an end in itself.