The (not so) silent centre: New Zealander ethnicity responses in the census

ABSTRACT

Recent census-based studies suggest that the identification patterns of dominant ethnic groups vary dramatically from those of minorities, being less likely to change. An important exception has been “national naming”, where individuals shift their identification to take on national identifiers, such as “Canadian” or “New Zealander”. National identity, often considered supraethnic, is usually claimed in census counts by members of dominant groups, although the personal characteristics of those doing so, or the broader implications for ethnic and national identity, are less clear. We use linked microdata to explore patterns observed in the 2006 New Zealand census, when an especially striking shift to national naming occurred. We find the likelihood of identifying “New Zealander” correlates with being middle-aged, male, living in European-only households, living in less deprived areas and those with higher European population share. Such within-group differences have implications for understanding ethnic and national identity in dominant groups.

KEYWORDS:

• Dominant ethnicity
• ethnic majority
• national identity
• national naming
• settler colonialism
• census

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the expert assistance of Robert Didham and Inny Kang from Statistics New Zealand. Any errors or omissions are ours alone.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Declaration

Access to the anonymised New Zealand Longitudinal Census data used in this study was provided by Statistics New Zealand under conditions designed to give effect to the security and confidentiality provisions of the Statistics Act 1975. The results presented in this study are the work of the authors, not Statistics New Zealand or individual data suppliers.

Notes

1 “Dominant”, in a sociological rather than demographic sense, although, in many instances, dominant white groups are (currently) dominant both in terms of political power as well as numerically.

2 These set of countries also include the so-called “CANZUS” states - Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States. All are affluent English-speaking democracies with a shared British colonial past (Ford 2012).

3 As a result, the 2019 census asked respondents separately if they considered themselves to be Caledonian.

4 i.e. those for people born and resident in New Zealand as at the previous census.

5 i.e. of the address of usual residence collected at census t-1 and “address of usual residence 5 years ago” collected at census t.

6 Territorial Authorities (city and district councils) are statutory entities in New Zealand which exercise local governance (see Statistics New Zealand 2016a). While some reorganization occurred over the study period, we use the classification current in 2020, which comprises 67 separate authorities.

7 Of New Zealand’s two main islands, the North is the more heavily populated and ethnically diverse - it had a census usually resident population of 2,829,801 in 2001, of whom 2,052,483 (72.5%) were European. In comparison, the South Island’s 906,753 people, 818,481 (90.3%) were European (Statistics New Zealand 2020).

8 Meshblocks are the smallest geographic units defined by Statistics New Zealand, with a resident population of around 60–110 people (Statistics New Zealand 2016b).

9 It is worth noting that the highest odds are observed in the middle of the educational distribution (those with post-secondary qualification had the highest odds, more so than those with Bachelors’ or higher), which may, somewhat simplistically, offer evidence of the greater liberalism associated with higher education.

10 See also Callister’s (2011) various proffered explanations for the New Zealander ethnic responses in the 2006 census, suggesting that they may represent a) a form of ethnogenesis - “the ‘emergence of a second ‘indigenous’ group”; b) a protest against ethnic labelling; or c) a means for non-European or migrant communities to “signal integration” into New Zealand.

11 New Zealand has an Ethnic Communities Minister and government portfolio, for example, which “seeks to ensure that ethnic communities develop and maintain a positive sense of belonging to New Zealand” (Department of Internal Affairs 2017).

 

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the New Zealand Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE)-funded project UOWX1404 Capturing the Diversity Dividend of Aotearoa New Zealand (CADDANZ).