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ABSTRACT
In this article, we examine how white British migrants in Aotearoa/New Zealand and Pākehā New Zealanders understand the nature of their relationship to each other. We present findings from two qualitative studies conducted in Auckland, one with British migrants and the other with Pākehā. Drawing on Nash’s (2005. “Geographies of Relatedness.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 30: 452) argument that kinship is a selective process of performing the ‘relations that matter’, we demonstrate convergences and divergences in how British migrants and Pākehā conceive of relatedness between the two groups. While there is some overlap in naturalising a common ancestry, British migrants tended to have a greater expectation and experience of sameness whilst Pākehā were more likely to distance themselves from the British, highlighting cultural differences and an idiosyncratic Pākehā identity. Our unique comparative analysis of these discourses of relatedness brings together feminist understandings of kinship with critical scholarship on whiteness and settler colonialism to examine the functions such imaginaries of sameness and difference play in the context of negotiating dominant identities in contemporary settler societies. We argue that the way in which relatedness and kinship were mobilised reflected a desire to rightfully belong in place.
Acknowledgement
We would like to thank Tom Goodfellow, the editors and reviewers for their detailed and generous comments.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 The Anglosphere can be defined as ‘a non-institutional grouping of English-speaking states with a core comprised of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand’ (Wellings Citation2016, 371). The Anglosphere is a racialized category associated with whiteness.
2 According to the 2013 Census, of the ‘overseas-born’ living in Aotearoa/New Zealand, England is the largest source country followed by the People’s Republic of China and India. However, the category ‘Asia’ has overtaken the UK and Ireland to become the most common birthplace for overseas-born (Statistics New Zealand Citation2013).
3 In this article, and the study it draws on, Pākehā are conceptualised as ‘New Zealanders of a European background, whose cultural values and behaviour have been primarily formed from the experiences of being a member of the dominant group of New Zealand’ (Spoonley Citation1993, 57). This definition emphasises a shared structural location and history as the dominant majority in Aotearoa/New Zealand while also taking into account shared ethno-racial characteristics, which are part and parcel of domination. Today, the term ‘Pākehā’ sometimes also refers to all non-Māori including non-white immigrants in Aotearoa/New Zealand, or, alternatively, white people in general (see Bell Citation2004, 4, n3). There were no Pākehā respondents who claimed non-British European or South African ancestry. We are aware in using definitions which emphasise ancestry we are performing a particular kind of community ourselves (Fenton Citation2010).
4 Hammerton’s (Citation2011, Citation2017) participants include British migrants who are white and Persons of Colour.
5 Discourses of relatedness with Pākehā were not present in any of the research encounters with the latter group. While wary of excluding People of Color when writing about British migrants and thus reinforcing notions of Britishness as white, due to the focus on dominant identities, this paper focuses on the experience of white British participants.
6 While the influence of Britishness has increasingly diminished for Pākehā New Zealanders, for the British migrants in this study there were no clear differences between earlier and more recent cohorts in terms of who was more likely to grant significance to notions of relatedness with the majority culture. The second author found that all participants distanced themselves from the ‘New Zealand European’ label, no matter whether they expressly identified as Pākehā or chose to be New Zealanders only.
7 In New Zealand, the ethnicity question includes ‘New Zealand European’. Pākehā was only used in the 1996 Census. In 2006, many New Zealand Europeans opted for the ‘other’ option and wrote in ‘New Zealander’. Whilst white is used as a category in the British census it is not used in the New Zealand census.
8 We have included occupations to provide further context about participant’s lives. However, it is worth noting that participant’s occupations changed over the life course and that they moved in and out of work. In terms of deciding on the correct wording for their occupation, participants in the first author’s project identified their occupation during initial interviews, whereas for the second author’s project participant’s occupational sector was identified from the interviews.
9 A colloquial term for New Zealanders, and, more specifically, often New Zealanders with European heritage.
10 A colloquial term for migrants from the UK.
11 Whakapapa is a Māori term denoting ancestry and lineage.
12 Two towns on the South Island.