Samoan New Zealanders
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 144,138 (2013) | |
| Languages | |
| English, Samoan | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity |
Samoan New Zealanders are Samoan immigrants in New Zealand, their descendants, and New Zealanders of Samoan ethnic descent. They constitute one of New Zealand's most sizeable ethnic minorities. In the 2013 census, 144,138 New Zealanders identified themselves as being of Samoan ethnicity with 50,658 stating that they were born in Samoa, and 636 stating that they were born in American Samoa.
The country of Samoa (distinct from American Samoa) has a unique historical relationship with New Zealand, having been administered by New Zealand from 1914 to 1962.
Notable levels of Samoan migration to New Zealand began in the 1950s. In the 1970s, Samoan illegal immigrants were the targets of notorious "dawn raids" by the police, which led to accusations of ethnic bias in tackling illicit immigration. That same decade, some Samoan New Zealanders joined the newborn Polynesian Panthers, an organisation dedicated to supporting Pacific Islander New Zealanders, for example by providing information on their legal rights. The number of Samoan-born residents in New Zealand doubled to over 24,000 during the 1970s.
In 1982, a number of Samoan-born residents were granted citizenship with the Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act. Samoan immigration in New Zealand has subsequently been regulated by quotas. Since 2002, 1,100 Samoans are granted entry each year.
The 1874 census recorded 6 Samoans in New Zealand. Numbers have increased steadily ever since, to 279 in 1936, 1,336 in 1951, 19,711 in 1976, 24,141 in 1981, and 47,118 in 2001.
A majority of New Zealanders of Samoan ethnicity today are New Zealand-born. At the 2013 census, 62.7 percent of Samoan New Zealanders were born in New Zealand. Of the overseas-born population, 84 percent had been living in New Zealand for at least five years, and 48 percent had been living in New Zealand for at least 20 years.
Two-thirds (66.5 percent) of Samoan New Zealanders live in the Auckland Region, with 15.5 percent living in the Wellington Region, 10.9 percent elsewhere in the North Island and 7.1 percent in the South Island. Just under 94 percent live in a main urban area (i.e. population 30,000 or more). Of those living in Auckland, 50.8 percent live in the Mangere-Otahuhu, Otara-Papatoetoe and Manurewa local board areas.
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