Immigration (New Zealand)

Where can I find information about immigration to New Zealand?

(Years 7-10)

Painting from 1844 of a Scottish family ready to board a ship to Aotearoa NZ. — Image: The emigrants by William Allsworth. Collection: Te Papa. No Known Copyright Restrictions. Image Cropped.

Entry last updated: 2/04/26

Introduction

The movement of people from one place to another is called migration, and when people enter a new country to live, it is called immigration. Aotearoa New Zealand has long been a country people have chosen to immigrate to. In this entry we’ll look at immigration to New Zealand from the 1800s onwards, as well as the reasons people are moving here today.

Past immigration

In the 1800s immigrating to New Zealand meant a long and often dangerous journey, and the early settlers or colonists weren’t always sure what they would find in their new home. These websites have great information about the different peoples who have settled here, as well as pictures, videos and newspaper articles.

Tips: You can use names of people, groups, places and events as keywords for your searches, eg Polish immigrants. We can always change our keywords or add more if we need to.

Te Ara: the Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Te Ara is an excellent starting point for finding information on different cultures that have settled in Aotearoa New Zealand. The website belongs to the Ministry for Culture & Heritage, so the information is well-researched and reliable.

Go to Topics and choose History.
Look for the stories History of immigration and immigration regulation — which are about rules and policies on immigration over the years.
Or from Topics choose Immigrant groups. Choose a group to find out about the history and statistics of different nationalities that have come to New Zealand, eg Fijians, English, Dutch and Chinese.

NZ History

NZ History is a great website for information about Aotearoa New Zealand. If we go all the way down the page we can see that the website belongs to the Ministry for Culture & Heritage, so the information is well-researched and reliable.

Scroll down the page and select Culture and Society.
Find the heading called Immigration.
Check the link British & Irish immigration, 1840-1914 for information on English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh immigration — what jobs migrants did, and where in Great Britain they came from.
Check the link Assisted immigration, 1947-75 for information about the assisted immigration scheme.
Check the link The dawn raids: causes, impacts and legacy about the impact of immigration policies on Pacific Islanders in the 1970s.

Tips: Many websites link to further information or to other useful sites. You can follow these links to find more info :)

New Zealand Parliament

New Zealand Parliament is all about parliamentary business, offices, members and how parliament works. It also has useful information about immigration to New Zealand.

Go to the tab on Parliamentary Business and select Library Research Papers from the drop down menu.
Then go to Research Papers and find Immigration chronology: selected events 1840-2018.
This paper is about key immigration events that have had an impact on New Zealand society since 1840, such as
World War Two assisted settlement, Migrant categories, and Immigration Acts over the years.

Tips: Some websites have .au, .nz or other codes in their url. This can tell you which country this website comes from eg .au is from Australia or .nz is from New Zealand.

Topic Explorer (National Library)

Topic Explorer is an online tool from the National Library of New Zealand. It contains a wide range of quality resources in a variety of formats eg images, video, audio, websites, articles, primary sources, etc.

Under Explore topics by year level choose Years 7 - 8.
Then choose Refugee stories to find stories about refugee journeys and settlement in New Zealand.

Tips: The resources for Topic Explorer are selected from reliable national and international sources.

DigitalNZ

This website focuses on New Zealand history and brings together results from many different websites, including lots of primary sources.

Enter the keywords 'immigration' or immigrants into the search box.
You can narrow your search by adding the name of a country eg 'Immigration Samoa' or 'Immigrants Ireland'.
Explore the range of images, audio, videos and stories. The tab called More has links to historic newspapers, articles, research papers and books etc on this topic.
You can also filter your result by time period by choosing decades along the top of the page, picking a decade, and then selecting apply filters.

Tips: Primary sources are original materials from the time something happened, like diaries, letters, photos, interviews, or official documents. They can show people’s values and attitudes from that time.

Current immigration

This section looks at why people move to New Zealand today, where they come from, and what life is like for them in New Zealand.

Immigration New Zealand

This is the New Zealand government's website for anyone planning to move to New Zealand from overseas.

Choose the tab Live Ora along the top of the page.
Look at the Moving to New Zealand section to find reasons people might choose to move here.
Look at the Setting up your life in New Zealand section to find guidance for new immigrants.

Tips: We like sites like this because they’re reliable. You can tell because of their web address – they have either .govt or .ac, meaning they are from government or educational organisations. They’re also New Zealand sites, so relevant for us.

The Southern Institute of Technology (SIT)

SIT is a well-known New Zealand polytechnic that has branches across the South Island. It has advice for students who have moved to New Zealand to study.

Select the tab International at the top of the page.
Choose Living, studying and working in New Zealand from the dropdown menu.
Have a look at the information under the Cultural Differences and Culture shock / Homesickness headings.

Tips: Sites that have .govt.nz or .ac.nz are from NZ government or educational organisations. We like sites like this because they’re reliable and relevant to us.

Australia New Zealand Reference Centre Plus

This is one of the EPIC resources, which is a collection of reliable databases covering lots of different topics. It’s put together especially for New Zealand school students.

Log into the database.
Enter the keywords 'Immigrants New Zealand' or 'Immigration New Zealand'.
You can refine your results using the options on the top of the page, eg changing the publication date or limiting your search to newspaper or magazine articles.

Tips: To use the EPIC resources, you need a password from your school librarian. Or chat with one of our AnyQuestions librarians. Some EPIC databases may be available through your public library.

ENZ

ENZ is a non-profit organisation that aims to help people find out about and settle in New Zealand.

The column on the right side of the screen lists all the topics covered on the site.
Select the Personal experiences link at the top of the column to read stories by recent immigrants.
Select Facts and Statistics from the column and then scroll down the page to the link for New Zealand Migrants.

Tips: Websites that have .org or .net in the address can have good information, but you need to assess how reliable it is. Check the About link on the website, if you can find one. That can tell you what the organisation’s mission and values are.

Books

Over time there have been many books published telling the stories of people coming to this country. Visit your school or public library to check out the print collection there.

Here are some titles to begin with.