ONE in four people living in New Zealand was born outside the country, according to figures released last month from the 2013 census of New Zealand’s 4.5m people. That is an increase of nearly 8% since the last census in 2006. People born in Asia now make up 32% of the foreign-born population, overtaking the proportion born in Britain and Ireland, at 27%, for the first time.

Auckland has the heaviest concentration of Asian migrants. Just under one in four in the city is of Asian ethnicity and four out of ten of the city’s population were born overseas. The rapid growth of the Asian population began in the 1990s. In 1987 legislation that favoured British immigration and discriminated against Asians was changed. Skills, education and willingness to invest in New Zealand were introduced as qualifications for migrants regardless of race.

And yet, unlike neighbouring Australia, the influx of immigrants has not yet produced a backlash. The two major parties, the National Party and the Labour Party, have encouraged immigration. The tiny National Front Party, and its even tinier offshoot, the Right Wing Resistance (neither of which is represented in Parliament) oppose immigration. But although they stage occasional vocal demonstrations, they usually attract even more vocal counter-demonstrators who oppose their views. New Zealand First, another small party with seven MPs in Parliament, is also avowedly anti-immigration. But its mercurial leader, Winston Peters, has served as a minister in both National-led and Labour-led governments. He was a foreign minister in a Labour-led Government and managed to persuade Asian governments, suspicious of his past anti-immigration views, that he was no racist. New Zealand First is a party of the centre, not at all associated with the traditional doctrines of the extreme right.

Some Maori are increasingly worried about competition for jobs. They also see a threat to the special place they have as the indigenous people of the nation. And some New Zealanders also complain that Asian groups keep too much to themselves. But such reactions are closer to mild resentment than to a backlash.

Experts say there are several reasons for New Zealand’s relative tolerance. There is widespread acceptance that New Zealand needs more workers, as Kiwis continue to migrate to Australia. Biculturalism has also long been promoted to incorporate the nation’s Maori heritage. This encouraged appreciation of another culture long before other Asian immigrants arrived. The concentration of migrants in certain electorates has also encouraged politicians to look after them.

In addition, New Zealand has not so far been targeted, as Australia has, by Asian people-smugglers; so the emotional debate that has ensued across the Tasman Sea has not yet arrived in New Zealand, where there is still little debate about what it means to be multicultural. Paul Spoonley, a demographer and professor at Waikato University, says that New Zealand’s mixed-member proportional voting system allows migrants to be reflected in parliamentary representation and the views of its minorities to be heard.

Immigration did intrude, however, into national politics a few weeks ago. A government minister, Maurice Williamson, was forced to resign after his attempted intervention into a charge of domestic violence against a Chinese immigrant, Donghua Liu, a Chinese-born property developer and donor to the ruling National Party. Mr Williamson had previously lobbied for Mr Liu to be granted citizenship against the advice of officials. He had also lobbied unsuccessfully for Mr Liu’s proposal that New Zealand reduce its threshold for business immigrants, currently set at NZ$10m ($8.5m). A second incident involved the high-profile justice minister, Judith Collins. She attended a private dinner hosted by a Chinese firm, Oravida, of which her husband, David Wong-Tung, is a director. The firm later made a donation of NZ$30,000 to the National Party.

These incidents do not seem to concern the country's voters, as its general election approaches. But New Zealanders, tolerant as they are, are unlikely to put up with the use of big money from Chinese migrants if it looks like it is buying favours.

(Picture credit: AFP)