Malaysian New Zealanders are
New Zealand citizens and residents who are of
Malaysian descent or Malaysian-born immigrants. As of 2018, approximately 17,464 Malaysian-born people lived in
New Zealand, with a much higher number of New Zealanders with Malaysian ancestry.
History
During the
British colonial period
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
, 42 people born in 1916 on the
Straits Settlements
The Straits Settlements were a group of British territories located in Southeast Asia. Headquartered in Singapore for more than a century, it was originally established in 1826 as part of the territories controlled by the British East India Comp ...
(of which is now called Malaysia and
Singapore) became the first residents of New Zealand.
Most of them were the ethnic
Malays and
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of v ...
.
Emerging
racial riots in Malaysia in 1969 prompted more students from the ethnic Chinese community to seek an education in New Zealand.
Following the riots, the
Malaysian Government
The Government of Malaysia, officially the Federal Government of Malaysia ( ms, Kerajaan Persekutuan Malaysia), is based in the Federal Territory of Putrajaya with the exception of the legislative branch, which is located in Kuala Lumpur. Mal ...
introduced affirmative action policies to help the
Bumiputera Bumiputera or Bumiputra, which is a Malay word, comes from the Sanskrit word ''Bhumiputra'' which may be transliterated as "son of earth" or "son of the soil" (Bhūmi; भूमि = earth; putra = son). It has different definitions in Brunei and M ...
(mainly the Malays and
indigenous people
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
) to achieve a higher economic quality of life than the Chinese.
Preferential university entry for the Bumiputera made it more difficult for ethnic Chinese to enter Malaysian institutions of higher learning making it preferable for Malaysian Chinese to move and study in New Zealand universities rather than in their own country.
In 1986, there were 3,480 Malaysians in New Zealand which later increased to 14,547 in 2006.
Of this total, only 3,540 were Malays while most were Malaysian Chinese.
See also
*
Islam in New Zealand
Islam in New Zealand is a religious affiliation representing about 1.3% of the total population. Small numbers of Muslim immigrants from South Asia and eastern Europe settled in New Zealand from the early 1900s until the 1960s. Large-scale Musl ...
*
Malaysia–New Zealand relations
*
Military history of New Zealand in Malaysia
The New Zealand armed forces saw action in Malaysia throughout the 1950s and 1960s, first as part of the British Commonwealth response to the Malayan Emergency, and then in defence of Malaysia in the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation.
Malayan ...
References
Asian New Zealander
Immigration to New Zealand
New Zealander
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...
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