Social and Cultural Meanings of Tolerance: Immigration, Incorporation and Identity in Aotearoa, New Zealand

Immigration is arguably a contentious issue in New Zealand. A major shift in immigration policy and patterns of immigration has witnessed an anti-immigration backlash and debate over a 'crisis of national identity'. Drawing data from the 1995 and 2003 National Identity modules of the International Social Survey Programme, this paper examines New Zealanders' attitudes toward immigration. The results of hierarchical cluster and multiple correspondence analyses show how attitudes toward immigration highlight important social group (i.e. class and ethnicity) differences in beliefs about social incorporation and conceptions of national identity. Positive or negative attitudes toward immigration, therefore, have different meanings depending on broader social and cultural divisions in society. I conclude by relating the findings to processes of social incorporation among immigrants and their descendants.