Influence of the British immigration on
the culture of New Zealand
Comparing the culture of New Zealand with the Maori and Great Britain
Elkan van den Boogaard, student Engineering and Policy Analysis at the Faculty of
Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology (4189094).
E-mail [email protected]
Alex de Vos, student Engineering and Policy Analysis at the Faculty of Technology, Policy
and Management, Delft University of Technology (4188969). E-mail [email protected]
Abstract
The past two to three decades has seen a major shift in the political structure of
New Zealand, a country known for its large amount of immigrants in history.
This paper shows a part of this phenomenon, the influence immigrants had on
the culture of New Zealand. The main purpose of this study is to compare the
culture of New Zealand with the culture of Great Britain and the Maori, and find
an answer to the question: What is the influence of the British immigration to
New Zealand on the culture of New Zealand? The study was conducted in the
form of an interview with a Maori expert and comparing findings with literature.
The main results are that the Maori culture scores high on Power Distance
where New Zealand scores low, the Maori score low on Individualism while New
Zealand scores high, that the Maori score low on Uncertainty Avoidance while
New Zealand scores medium and that the scores for Masculinity, Long-term
Orientation and Indulgence vs. Restraint of the Maori and New Zealand are
close together. Also is shown that the scores of New Zealand and Great Britain
are close together for all of the above. This study has found that the influence of
the British on the culture of New Zealand is clearly visible, but not all scores can
be precisely explained. Further research might explore the influence of other
groups (or nationalities) of immigrants on the culture of New Zealand.
Introduction
Migration is of all times, with people also
bringing their own culture to their new
country. Especially in cases when
immigrants outnumbered the native
population, for example in the United
States of America, Australia and New
Zealand, an impact on the national
culture may be expected.
The purpose of this paper is to
compare the culture of New Zealand with
the culture of Great Britain and the
Maori. In particular, this paper will
examine the main research question:
What is the influence of the British
immigration to New Zealand on the
culture of New Zealand? The hypothesis
that will be tested is that the British
migration had a significant influence on
the culture of New Zealand. It needs to
be noted that in this paper it is assumed
that the culture of New Zealand before
the European migration was equal to the
culture of the Maori (native inhabitants
of New Zealand).
New Zealand has a colourful history of
immigration. The Maori discovered and
settled in New Zealand, around 1200 AD
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Influence of the British immigration on the culture of New Zealand
Elkan van den Boogaard & Alex de Vos, November 2011
(Veys, 2010). The Maoris are the
Polynesian people who came originally
from south-east Asia.
The First
European discovery of the islands was in
1642 by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman
(Yska, 2011). Many years later, there
arrived more groups of immigrants. Wars
and conflicts between Maori tribes were
always constant, and weapons used were
spears or clubs. The arrival of traders
lead to a flourishing trade with local
Maori,
who
rapidly
foresaw
the
advantages of overcoming enemy tribes
.
Maori
Germans
English
French
Jews
Scottish
Scandinavians
Chinese late
Irish
Dalmatians
Lebanese
European antifascists
Indians
Polish
Dutch
Hungarians
Pacific Islanders
Sri Lankans
Chileans
Russian Jews
East Europeans
Assyrians
Ethiopians
Iraqis
Bosnians
Somalia’s
Afghans
Vietnams,
Cambodians,
Laotians
Fijian Indians
Hong Kong citizens
Taiwanese
Koreans
South Africans
Middle Eastern
people
1000-1300
1834
1840
1840
1840
1848
1860s
1860s
1870s
1880s
1890s
1930s
1930s
1950s
1950s
1956
1960s, 1970s
and late 1980s
1970s to present
1970s to present
1970s to present
1970s to present
1970s to present
1970s to present
1970s to present
1970s to present
1970s to present
1970s to present
Small
numbers
1975 to present
1987
1990s
1990s
1990s
1990s
onwards
onwards
onwards
onwards
1990s onwards
Table 1: Immigration nationalities and
dates
with this deadly new weapon. Table 1
(Chapman,
2005)
contains
the
nationalities who have settled in New
Zealand till 1990 AD. The dates are also
mentioned.
It is clear that many immigrants have
settled in New Zealand with different
nationalities and cultures. It is likely that
all these cultures influence the culture of
New Zealand. Knowledge about the
original culture (Maori culture) is needed
to show the influence of other cultures.
The culture of the Maori, Great Britain
and New Zealand will be compared in
part ‘Comparing the cultures’.
Certain values are used for the
comparison between the cultures. These
values are taken from a survey of Geert
Hofstede (2010). Throughout this paper
the term ‘Hofstede Values’ will refer to
these values. Before discussing the
cultures of the New Zealanders, the
British and the Maori, we have to define
what culture is. The description of
culture by Geert Hofstede is: “It is the
collective programming of the mind that
distinguishes the members of one group
or category of people from others”
(Hofstede, 2010). This is the definition of
culture that is used in this paper. This is
because, as said before, only the
Hofstede Values will be used to compare
the cultures. A considerable amount of
literature has been published on cultures
and comparing them. Due to the limited
amount of time for the study presented
in this paper only the Hofstede Values
are used. It is noted that the Hofstede
theory is one way of looking at culture,
but certainly not the only way and
therefore perhaps not the single best
way. Considering this, the Hofstede
Values are chosen because of familiarity
with the theory by the writers of this
paper.
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Influence of the British immigration on the culture of New Zealand
Elkan van den Boogaard & Alex de Vos, November 2011
New Zealand
100
Great Britain
89
90
79
80
69
66
70
58
60
35
40
30
51
49
50
75
35
33
22
20
10
0
PDI
IDV
MAS
UAI
LTO
IVR
Figure 1: New Zealand and Great Britain
The British connection
The Maori culture
As mentioned before, New Zealand has a
long history of migration. New Zealand
became a colony of Britain in 1840
(Wilson, 2011) and till the 1970s the
British were the largest group of foreignborn people in New Zealand (Hearn,
2011). Nowadays the culture of Great
Britain and New Zealand have a lot in
common, they are grouped in the same
family of nations (Jong, de, n.d.) 1. Figure
1 shows the Hofstede Values2 for New
Zealand and Great Britain (Hofstede,
2010). The largest differences can be
seen at the Long-term Orientation (LTO),
the Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI) and the
Power Distance (PDI), but none with a
difference exceeding 18 points. The
comparison between the culture of the
Maori, Great Britain and New Zealand
will be further discussed in the part
‘Comparing cultures’.
As previously mentioned, the cultures
are compared with Hofstede Values. The
Maori culture is not included in the
research of Hofstede. We had two
interviews to get information about the
original culture. The first interview was
with two Dutch people who lived and
worked for two years in New Zealand.
The second interview was held with a
Maori expert3. This chapter contains
information about the second interview.
The
questions
and
answers
are
translated to the Hofstede Values. The
scores can be seen in Figure 2 where
100 represents a high score and 0 a low
score.
1
This book has not been published yet
Hofstede uses six dimensions to
compare cultures:
1) Power distance (PDI)
2) Collectivism vs. individualism (IDV)
3) Femininity vs. masculinity (MAS)
4) Uncertainty avoidance (UAI)
5) Long-term vs. short-term
orientation (LTO)
6) Indulgence vs. Restraint (IVR)
2
Power Distance
The Maori culture scores high to
medium-high on Power Distance (PDI).
For example the interview revealed that
hierarchy is very important in the social
context and that the leader’s decisions
must be respected. A leader is highly
important and the group member with
the best skills is elected. The decisions
3
Fanny Wonu Veys, Oceania curator at
the Museum Volkenkunde Leiden
(Museum of Ethnology Leiden) and writer
of the book Mana Maori - The Power of
New Zealand's first inhabitants, 2010
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Elkan van den Boogaard & Alex de Vos, November 2011
however are made together, the whole
community or tribe can influence the
decisions in meetings. Doubting the
leader, and therefore the decisions
made, outside the meeting on the other
hand is highly inappropriate.
Collectivism vs. Individualism
The Maori culture is highly collectivistic
and
therefore
scores
low
on
Individualism (IDV). The family is
extremely important, as the interview
showed. For example when choosing a
profession influences the community the
choices of the individual, the interests of
the community comes first. Also, as
shown in the Power Distance part above,
decisions are made with the whole
community.
seamen for example. As mentioned
before, they traded a lot of goods for the
foreign firearms as they saw those new
weapons as an opportunity, primarily to
fight rivalling tribes. The interview also
revealed that the Maori are seldom
stressed, also one of the characteristics
of a low Uncertainty Avoidance.
100
80
60
40
20
0
PDI IDV MAS UAI LTO IVR
Femininity vs. Masculinity
The Maori culture is medium Masculine.
Starting
with
the
masculine
characteristics: A higher status within
the family is very important, that brings
more responsibility and more respect.
Everything must be very large as well.
There are always large amounts of food
for instance. The more you give, the
more status you get. So being generous
is very important. It is very much
appreciated when somebody offers
something extra. So, they praise
excellent students. The culture also has
feminist
features,
for
example
relationships and quality of life are
important, people work in order to live
instead of live to work and family always
comes first.
Uncertainty Avoidance
Avoiding uncertainty is not the most
important part in the Maori culture. They
therefore score low on Uncertainty
Avoidance (UAI). The Maori are a nation
of seafarers. Changes are embraced and
what is different is mostly found curious
instead of dangerous. The Maori started
to trade quickly with the European
Figure 2: Maori scores
Long-term vs. short-term orientation
The
Maori
are
very
Short-term
orientated. As an example, generally
speaking if people want buy something,
they do it right away, even if they have
to borrow money. They do not have
large savings. Service to others is an
important goal, they are very social and
everybody wants to help others. They
are very proud of their origins, for
example when a Maori met someone, he
often referred to his origins. Students
attribute success to effort, failure to lack
of it. This also applies within the families.
Indulgence vs. Restraint
The Maori culture is highly Indulgence.
People are happy and very helpful to
others. They spend much time on social
activities and family. There is also a high
importance to have friends. Another
clear example of indulgence is that Maori
people are very fanatical in sports.
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Influence of the British immigration on the culture of New Zealand
Elkan van den Boogaard & Alex de Vos, November 2011
Maori
100
New Zealand
89
90
79
80
69
66
70
58
60
35
40
75
51
49
50
30
Great Britain
35
33
22
20
10
0
PDI
IDV
MAS
UAI
LTO
IVR
Figure 3: The Maori, New Zealand and Great Britain
Comparing the cultures
In this part the Hofstede Values for New
Zealand and Great Britain are compared
with the scores for the Maori given
above. The different scores are shown in
Figure 3. The scores for the Maori culture
are only indicated as high, medium or
low. Because of the limited resources
and little amount of time, no exact
scores could be calculated with any
certainty.
Power Distance
The Maori score high on Power Distance
(PDI) while New Zealand and Great
Britain score medium to low (Figure 3).
Here the influence of the British cannot
explain the value for New Zealand, since
New Zealand scores lower than Great
Britain. Countries scoring lower on PDI
then New Zealand are Denmark, Israel
and Austria (Hofstede, 2010). Nowadays
1,929 inhabitants of New Zealand count
themselves to the Danish ethnic group or
groups
with
which
they
identify
(Walrond, 2009). As a comparison, today
that number is 28,641 for the Dutch
(Yska, 2011). The number of Danish
immigrants was not that large and
therefore it seems unlikely that the
Danish had such a large impact on the
New Zealand culture. A clear explanation
about the low score on PDI by New
Zealand cannot be given.
Individuality
Figure 3 shows a large difference in
Individuality (IDV) between the Maori
and Great Britain. New Zealand lies
between those two points, but not in the
middle. As shown scores New Zealand
relatively high on IDV. It is expected that
the culture of Great Britain had a large
impact on the culture of New Zealand.
Masculinity
The scores for Masculinity for the Maori,
New Zealand and Great Britain are close
together as Figure 3 shows. As explained
before, only a high, medium or low score
is indicated for the Maori culture, no
precise scores. Therefore it cannot be
said with any certainty that the New
Zealand culture scores lower on MAS
then Great Britain due to the influence of
the Maori, only that they are close
together.
Uncertainty Avoidance
New
Zealand
scores
highest
on
Uncertainty Avoidance compared to the
cultures of Great Britain and the Maori.
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Influence of the British immigration on the culture of New Zealand
Elkan van den Boogaard & Alex de Vos, November 2011
The score of New Zealand on Uncertainty
Avoidance cannot be explained with only
the British culture, the higher value of
New Zealand could perhaps come from
immigrants with another cultures in New
Zealand. For instance Dutch people, with
a score of 53 on Uncertainty Avoidance
(Hofstede, 2010). Today some 100,000
New Zealanders are believed to have
Dutch blood (Yska, 2011), so it is
possible that this group had influence on
the New Zealand’s culture.
Long-term orientation
The culture of Great Britain scores
medium on Long-term orientation and
the Maori culture is very Short-term
orientated. The culture of New Zealand
lies between these two values. Due to
the inaccuracy of the Maori score, it
cannot be said which of the two cultures,
the Maori or the British, had the most
influence.
Indulgence vs. Restraint
The cultures of Great Britain and New
Zealand score very close together on this
dimension. Both are medium-high. The
Maori culture scores high. It cannot be
said with certainty that there is really a
difference between the Maori culture and
the cultures of Great Britain and New
Zealand for this score. Because the
scores in this study are classified into
low, medium and high. So, in reality,
they are maybe all close together.
Conclusion
Returning to the hypothesis posed at the
beginning of this study, it is now possible
to state that the culture of Great Britain
immigrants definitely influences the
Culture of New Zealand. Figure 3 shows
clearly that for almost every dimension
the culture of Great Britain is closer to
the value of the culture of New Zealand
than the Maori culture to the value of
New Zealand.
Since we know that the culture of Great
Britain influences the New Zealand
culture, it is expected that the culture of
New Zealand lies between Maori culture
and the culture of Great Britain. Three
dimensions (IDV, MAS and LTO) suggest
that this may be the case. For the other
three dimensions is this assumption not
correct. This is probably due to some
uncertainties in this study. It is very
unilateral to look only at the influence of
the British migration on the culture of
New Zealand because there are so many
immigrants with different cultures. It is
likely that all (or most of) these cultures
influence the New Zealand's culture as
well. Another big uncertainty is the
translation of information about the
Maori culture into a Hofstede Value. So,
it is clear that the culture of Great Britain
influences the culture of New Zealand
but it is uncertain to what extent this
effect occurs. More research on other
immigrant’s cultures is needed to find
out the exact influence of only the British
culture.
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Elkan van den Boogaard & Alex de Vos, November 2011
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