New book by Alan Gamlen explores forty years of immigration and transformation in Aotearoa New Zealand
We are delighted to announce the publication of Edges of Empire: The Politics of Immigration in Aotearoa New Zealand, 1980–2020, a new book by Professor Alan Gamlen, co-authored with Francis L. Collins and Neil Vallelly, and published by The Auckland University Press.
About the book
How and why immigration has evolved in Aotearoa New Zealand over the last forty years.
Since 1980, the peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand have fundamentally changed through new policies and new patterns of migration – from a largely Pākehā population with 10 per cent Māori in 1980 to today’s megadiversity, with new residents from Asia, the Pacific and the rest of the world. Immigration has had a profound impact on New Zealand’s society, economy, and place in the world.
Edges of Empire is an in-depth account of the social, political and economic context within which these transformations in policy and population took place. Drawing on interviews with fifteen former Ministers of Immigration, this book reveals the intricacies of politics and policy-making that have led to New Zealand’s relatively open and economically driven approach towards migration.
Written by three leading social scientists, Edges of Empire provides an insightful account of who is included in Aotearoa New Zealand and under what conditions.
Endorsements
Aotearoa New Zealand is a curiously neglected case in migration studies, despite the significance of immigration in the country’s social, economic and political development. This book will make a significant contribution towards filling this gap.
— Antje Ellermann, Founder and Co-Director, Centre for Migration Studies, University of British Columbia
This is an impressive review of international migration policy in Aotearoa New Zealand with particular reference to the forty years between 1981 and 2020. It makes a distinctive contribution by situating much of the discussion in the context of the perspectives and policy interventions of successive Ministers of Immigration since the mid-1970s. As someone with more than fifty years of research experience in the field, I found the narrative that the authors have developed is novel, very comprehensive, well argued and interesting to read.
— Richard Bedford, QSO, Emeritus Professor, University of Waikato and AUT
Edges of Empire is the first book-length study to chronicle the evolution of migration policy governance in Aotearoa New Zealand in the neo-liberal period, against the backdrop of treatymaking involving Māori and complex external relationships with peoples of the Pacific Islands. It boldly responds to the challenge to migration scholars to attend to the colonial in multiple sites and at different scales. The book is also unique in its use of interviews with successive ministers of migration to centre the analysis. In all these ways, Collins, Gamlen and Vallelly have produced a highly original and timely scholarly intervention.
— Leah F. Vosko, FRSC, Distinguished Research Professor of Political Economy, York University