my father was a race alien: globalisation and immigration in new zealand

My father was a race alien: Globalisation and immigration in New Zealand

Professor Michèle Akoorie, WMS

Michèle E.M. Akoorie2

hthttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uOUqW6liUQtp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uOUqW6liUQ

Is one of these my father???? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uOUqW6liUQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uOUqW6liUQ


Outline of Presentation

• Who?• Why?• Identity• Living two lives• Emotional Labour• Shaping the future


W.P Reeves Minister of Labour, 1895

“‘ I do not hesitate to say that in my opinion the so-called Assyrian Hawker is as undesirable a person as John Chinaman himself. They do not add to the wealth of the country. They do not even produce wealth from the earth as the Chinese do. They simply carry on a retail hawking trade. They do not contribute to the revenue in the way that our traders contribute. They do not lead sanitary lives. They are not a moral people. They are not a civilized people, and in no sense are they a desirable people”.


This is possibly Bir Singh Gill who came to NZ in 1890 and was an itinerant herbalist in the King Country. He was unaccountably described as an “Assyrian”


My origins

• Grandfather – Abraham Joseph Akoorie • Maronite Catholics – originally from the Mountains of

Lebanon – name originally Mahan• Named Akoorie after village “Akoura” • Emigrated to NZ in the 1880s -Lived in Christchurch• Returned to the Lebanon 1901 – to marry suitable wife –

cousin – six living children five boys, one girl – all except one came to NZ to live (including my father in 1935)– some passing through on way to the US or Mexico (Akoorie, 2007)


My father’s passport (1935). Lebanese classified as ‘race aliens’. 1899 Asiatica Restriction Act – to safeguard the racial purity of the people of NZ


Passport of my fatherFather (b. 1916) Passport and visa for NZ (in French). Under 1920 Immigration Restriction Act – Minister of Customs vested with sole discretionary power to admit persons of any other origin. British or Irish descent had free entry.


My Grandmother – Labeibe and two sons, married at 16 had six living children


My grandfather’s funeral in Tripoli, Lebanon 1948


Grandfather’s funeral – leaving the family home (note Maronite priest in foreground)


Maronite – Christian sect founded by St Maro (d. 407). Origins do not go back beyond 7th C. Since 1811 in communion with the Roman Catholic Church


BRIEF HISTORY OF LEBANONLebanon – “a country rich in time but poor in space” Hitti (1962)

14

PPhoenicia – culturally descended from the Canaanites, occupied coastal plain – trade, manufacturing, wood, jewellery

Michèle E.M. Akoorie


Extent of Empire – thrived until 332 B.C when Tyre (capital) sacked by Alexander the Great (became part of the Greek world). Phoenician alphabet borrowed by Greeks – passed down into Western cultural tradition


Then came the Crusades……Eight crusades from 11th Century to 13th Century. Failure to recover the Holy Land


Crusaders greeting the locals and some stayed…


Established by Othman end of 13th C. Reached zenith under Suleiman (mid 16th C) dominated Eastern Mediterranean, powerful in the 17th C but by 19th C became the ‘sick man of Europe”.


Borders of Modern Lebanon. Mountain village is where grandfather came from. Moved to Tripoli where family was born.


The flag of the Lebanon – the Cedar Tree. Ruled by the Ottoman Empire, became a French mandate (1918) then independent after WWII.


Grape Harvest – wine making was and still is a Lebanese tradition – Corban family (Greek Orthodox) brings it to NZ


Shared love of traditional foods – Kibbe –the national dish of Lebanon (lamb and cracked wheat with spices) – cooked in oven


Certain Lebanese foods (hummus), tabbouleh, baba ghanoush and pitta bread have become familiar in NZ and elsewhere


As have sweets such as baklava…….made with filo pastry


Reasons for Emigration

• Why did the Lebanese family come to New Zealand?

• Poverty, no work, famine (1914-18) political instability

• Clan migration – grandfather’s contact with sister• Offered employment to family and assistance to

come to New Zealand• Motivations – altruistic and instrumental


Parents married in 1942 – at St Patricks, PN. Father a ‘race alien’ as France still occupied – notify police of travel, not called up


One of many remittances sent by my father to his father in the Lebanon


Lived in Palmerston North – father manages The State Theatre for Amalgamated Theatres - socialising


Auckland 1950s – Father manages Century Theatre. Mother begins first assimilation process in PN, leaves Catholic Church, enrols us in Anglican Sunday School and State Schools in Auckland….


Four sessions at the Century, six days a week, followed by managing the iconic Wintergarden ballroom on Friday and Saturday nights…..


Living two lives or a half of two lives

• 2nd assimilation point – clash over going to University. Lebanese women traditionally cook, marry and breed

• Edward Said:• “Cultural power organised through disciplines such as history,

anthropology, philology, were as significant in the maintenance of colonial rule as the political, economic and military polices that had dominated academic study”

• In our case the influence was towards European languages and history rather than the Middle East (as Lebanon was a French mandate)

• Prompted our own desire to leave New Zealand and live elsewhere. For decades NZ a mono cultural nation


NZ embraces globalisation & immigration

• Immigration Restriction Act (1920) passed responsibility for discretionary entry into NZ from persons of any other origin to Minister of Customs

• NZ operated a de facto “white” NZ policy until the mid 1960s– (Apart from special interest groups such as group migration from the

Netherlands and special interest groups from the SW Pacific)• Stereotypical hostility of condemnatory judgement on any one who

was ‘foreign’ – prejudiced immigrant view of attitudes acquired in England

• 1987 Act changed origin to skills, personal qualities, and potential contribution to New Zealand economy and society. Replaced by 2009 Act – concern over two tier system – wealthy individuals bringing parents to New Zealand


2013 census shows diversity of countries of birth

Top 10 countries of birth of New Zealand residents, 2013 census[11]

Country Number %

New Zealand 2,980,827 74.85

United Kingdom[a] 256,164 6.43

China[b] 96,441 2.42

India 67,176 1.69

Australia 62,712 1.57

South Africa 54,279 1.36

Fiji 52,755 1.32

Samoa 50,658 1.27

Philippines 37,299 0.94

South Korea 26,604 0.67

1.Jump up^ Includes Channel Islands and Isle of Man.2.Jump up^ Includes Hong Kong SAR and Macau SAR.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_New_Zealand#cite_note-12

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_New_Zealand#cite_note-13

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiji

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samoa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippines

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Korea

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_New_Zealand#cite_ref-12

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_Islands

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Man

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_New_Zealand#cite_ref-13

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_SAR

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macau_SAR


EMOTIONAL LABOUR, GLOBALISATION AND IMMIGRATION

Results of a study in which we used qualitative research (grounded theory) to interview 25 immigrants in the skilled worker category


Globalisation, immigration and Emotional Labour

• Study of 25 immigrants in 1990s• Hochschild’s (1983) work on The

Commercialisation of Feeling• Suggests management of feeling to create a

publicly observable facial and bodily display (p.7)

• Enhancing, faking or supressing emotions to modify the emotional expression -


Manifestations of emotional labour

• Surface acting • Deep acting • Hochschild – stress of emotional labour• Emotional dissonance• Controlling true feelings• Presenting appropriate ‘face’


Immigrants landing in America – hope, fear, dislocation, language skills, learning different rules…


Results

• Language difficulties and communication• Difficulties in understanding local accent

despite formal English qualifications– “self doubt about my skills .. No Chinese friends, no

information, nothing about the new area. No one to talk to for more than one month… loneliness…”

– “After 20 years there are still occasions when I think it is my language – I have been called abrupt at work where it is just my nature with the English”


Polish refugees arriving in New Zealand


Results

• Theme of racism…Nigerian participant– “Many New Zealanders perceive that Africa has been

credited with the mysterious, slavery, people being docile, lack of technology, we are seen as backward”…

• Finding accommodation – Kiwis don’t like Asians– “when I ask if I can live here they say “oh do you

want to live here? I said ‘yes’ and they said ‘no we have another party now’”


Flow on effects

• ‘Racism’ is expressed mildly• ‘flow-on effect’ anger and rejection long after

the event – triggered by other events– Two participants stated that New Zealand does

not need migrants– “government perhaps but not in the real world.

New Zealanders are afraid of immigrants, or we are a little more direct …tension is building up”…


Conclusions of study

• Participants continually compared their feelings, values, needs and aspirations with their perceptions of the environment in their home nation

• Range of complex considerations • Drew on skill set as a platform to move to a

nation which could fulfil these desires


Emotional connectedness and dissonance

• Most participants experience a wide range of feelings including emotional connectedness, mixed emotions and deepening emotional dissonance over time

• Emotional connectedness – feeling accepted, settling into NZ society and finding employment equivalent to their skill set

• Active involvement in communities of coping – friendship networks, Church activities and social clubs


Emotional connectedness and dissonance –

• Reconciling feelings in several ways• First, many focused on wider motivations and

goals – better lifestyle, safer community, less competition for children, less racism

• Second, cognitive coping strategies, reconceptualised their emotional dissonance focused on favourable aspects of what could be negative perceptions (i.e. education)

• Third, changing their goals in relation to work


Affective effects

• Impact of language skills (unanticipated since they met the skilled language requirements)

• Take charge of improving their communication skills• Rationalising why a NZ employer might not hire them

(reference in home country, trust)• Surface acting – their inadequacy and doubt remained intact• Deep acting as a strategy – change how they feel about the

situation – situation is not of their own making. What is in question is their foreignness.

• Removal? Retrain? Escape…


Is going home an option? My two uncles Michel and Tony go back to Lebanon to find the family village. They never got there and I think they were not disappointed!


Conclusion

• Emotion plays powerful rule in decision to emigrate• Mixed emotions experienced in settling in; drew on

deeper motivations and goals to cope with those aspects of live causing emotional dissonance

• Individualised coping strategies of retraining have pragmatic considerations

• Government policy of addressing skill shortages not being achieved – skills not utilised


Conclusion

• Controversially, we suggest that at a community level, New Zealanders may not be able to integrate migrants in their daily lives to the extent that would enable government objectives to be met.

• Migrants are caught at the intersection of government objectives and community ability and willingness to embrace migration

• It is they who pay for the promise of a better life, both in terms of the financial and emotional costs involved in migrating


Concluding remarks

• We are all immigrants – a desire to build a better life • Earlier, smaller groups of non-European immigrants

‘pepper potted’. Assimilation through marrying out• Larger groups of non-European skilled immigrants

more difficult to integrate• Communication, integration and acceptance more

likely with second generation through education • Immigrants bring network resources, trade links, set

up businesses, entrepreneurial skills

my father was a race alien: globalisation and immigration in new zealand

Documents

future michle

mahannamed akoorie

mexico akoorie

people of nzmichle

desirable people

civilized people

moral people

mountains of lebanon