AUT's University Director of Diversity, Edwina Pio is bringing together AUT stakeholders for her third diversity summit, this year exploring ‘Ethnicity in the workspace'.

"In general people are a bit nervous about touching areas like this because they are delicate and they always create controversy, irrespective of which way you go," she says. Previous summits have tackled ‘Muslims at work in New Zealand' and the refugee experience. Continue reading

Peters says a move to set up a new ethnicity-based political party for Asian and Indian immigrants is a "an extraordinary demand" which will harm New Zealand.

The People's Party has been set up and acting leader Rohan Nauhria.

He told RNZ the party would campaign on issues such as crime and was aiming to get into Parliament by focusing on the Indian and other Asian communities.

The party launch coincides with the prime minister John Key writing an open letter to ethnic media outlets in a bid to reassure ethnic communities.

In the letter he said that the Government was focused on crime after concerns about rising burglaries.

Key said he was not surprised the party had emerged given the recent focus on migration.

He doubted it would get into Parliament, based on the history of similar one-issue parties and its lack of a well-known leader.

The People's Party plans to stand in the Mt Roskill by-election if Phil Goff is elected Mayor in the Auckland Council elections.

National's likely candidate in the byelection will be Indian-born Parmjeet Parmar, who migrated to New Zealand in 1995.

Labour has already selected Michael Wood, who is well known in the electorate as a local board member.

Although Labour has held the seat for decades, National got more of the party vote in 2014.

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• Image:

Fatima Abdulkarem, 19, has turned down a job trial at a juice bar at Auckland Airport over what she felt was discriminatory and racist treatment during her job interview.

Her story followed that of Fatima Mohammadi, 20, who was turned away from an interview when she refused to agree to take off her hijab on the job.

Because of New Zealand's rapidly growing diversity issues like these are going to increase in the future.

More than 25 per cent of New Zealanders were born born overseas.

In Auckland

• Almost 50 per cent of the population is Maori, Asian and Pasifika
• 44 per cent were not born in New Zealand
• There are over 200 ethnicities, and 160 languages spoken.

A superdiverse population is a population with 100 or more ethnicities.

New Zealand is now closer to 200.

Lawyer Mai Chen has been researching the effect of New Zealand's superdiversity.

Chen recommends a formal multi-cultural policy so that implications of an ethnically diverse society on law and policy can be analysed.

Her 400 page Superdiverisity Stocktake, officially launched last week, looks at a range of legal issues that may arise from a superdiverse population.

It makes 78 recommendations for business and public agencies from 58 key findings.

"Superdiversity will bring more legal challenges for breaches of the right to be free from discrimination and the rights of minorities to language culture and religion under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 and the Human Rights Act 1993," she says.

"It's not about race, it's not just about equality and fairness, it's a much bigger issue than that," Chen told Australasian Lawyer.

"It has significant impacts on our economy, on how business is done, on government and on law."

Taiwan-born Chen is the managing partner law firm of Chen Palmer.
Source

• australasianlawyer.com.au
• nzherald.co.nz
• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: nzherald.co.nz

Her expertise relates to work, ethnicity and religion, primarily focussing on ethnic minorities and migrants.

Edwina has a PhD in Buddhist Psychology, a Master's degree in Psychology and a double Bachelor's degree - one in Psychology and the other in Education.

She is on the Board of the Australia New Zealand Academy of Management and is registered with the NZ Association of Counsellors.

Professor Pio has published several books including ‘Sari: Indian women at work in New Zealand', and ‘Longing and Belonging'.

Source

• EEOTrust.org.nz
• Human Rights Commission
• Image: Scoop

Instances of verbal abuse followed the intimidating experience, as some Kiwis reacted angrily to Muslim protests about cartoons published in a Danish newspaper that depicted the prophet Muhammad in unflattering poses.

Six years on, things have changed. Rahman is running for Hamilton City Council and has knocked on hundreds of doors for her campaign. She's even rallied fellow Muslim women to leaflet drop. Continue reading

In the research for an AUT University study on ethnicity and policing, all but one of the 16 people interviewed by researchers Sameer Nisar and Edwina Pio for the study were Muslims.

"Overall, the participants revealed that they felt safe and secure in New Zealand, particularly in their contact with the police. They reported that they had never been profiled or stopped due to their affiliations with Islam."

This was described as "very positive", and the report noted that Muslims in many other Western nations, such as the United States and Britain, often claimed to be targeted by police there because of their affiliations to Islam.

Source

• The New Zealand Herald
• Image: sO.wp.com

His father had migrated to New Zealand from China in the late 30s and ran a fruit shop with Barry's grandfather. He brought his wife and an infant Barry over from Hong Kong in the 1950s.

They rejected Sue out of fear for their grandchildren. What would Asian-Jewish-European children look like? And where would they fit in?

Sue's Jewish grandfather had fled Europe before World War II to the corner of earth farthest from Hitler's Germany. She understood what it meant to be different.

She liked all the things that made Barry Chinese: the language, the food and the culture.

"I had awareness of difference, so it was shocking to be road-blocked with our relationship like that. It was about cultural difference," Sue said.

Then, one day, before the couple left for their OE, Barry's mother told him that when they returned they would accept Sue into the family.

But with more than 10 per cent of New Zealand identifying with more than one ethnic group, the grandparents were right. Sue and Barry's children have had to negotiate difficult issues of identity growing up in New Zealand.

Their eldest daughter, Nicky, who is "very obviously Eurasian", has struggled with her ethnic identity.

"She has never managed to not be Chinese. She has wanted to be white, but she can't get away from looking and feeling Chinese," said Barry.

Nicky is engaged to the son of Taiwanese migrants.

Sue and Barry's youngest son, Richard, has taken a very traditional Chinese girlfriend - a real surprise to his parents.

"It speaks of the era that a 21-year-old grew up in and what was his playing field at primary school and his immersion with other cultures," Sue said. Continue reading

Sources

• Simon Day in The Dominion Post
• Image: Stuff

Simon Day is a reporter for Fairfax NZ