1.1 What New Zealanders Think of Asia and Her Settlers In general, New Zealanders hold Asia in high regard. When asked about the importance of the Asian region to New Zealand’s future, four out of five people believe that it is either important or very important. Approximately 90% of New Zealanders believe that Asian tourism in New Zealand will have a positive future impact on the country and strongly endorse Asia as an export market. A majority also believe in the benefits to New Zealand of the economic growth in Asia (80%), free trade agreements between NZ and Asia (78%), and NZ tourism in Asia (74%). Asian migrants are seen as contributing significantly to NZ society (81%) and are felt to bring valuable diversity to the country (78%; Asia: NZ Foundation, 2009). The flip side to the perceived positive impact of Asia on New Zealand is the less optimistic view about the costs to New Zealand society that come with a closer relationship with Asia. A smaller majority of people believe that NZ benefits from: Asian imports to NZ (63%), Asian cultures and values (59%), Asian immigration (55%) and the population growth in Asia (47%; Asia: NZ Foundation, 2009). When attitudes towards immigrants and immigration are assessed, about one in two New Zealanders feel the recent arrival of many Asian migrants is changing NZ in undesirable ways. And almost one in two people believe that Asians are over-represented in crime, whereas only 2.5% of those actually incarcerated identify as Asian (which is far lower than the 9% Asian population at large; Gendall, Spoonley & Trlin, 2007). Taken together, these findings point to the idea that some New Zealanders are happy to have a one-way relationship with Asia, where they wish NZ to benefit economically, but they would like to keep New Zealand society and values distant from Asian influence and not quite inclusive of Asian people. The less positive views towards Asian influence on New Zealand society, and more strongly, the anxieties that some New Zealanders hold about the potential (negative) impact that the greater influx of Asian migration will bring to New Zealand, has perhaps led to an increase in prejudice, racism and discrimination being exhibited towards Asian inhabitants in recent years. When New Zealanders are asked to identify which group (ethnic or otherwise) faces the most discrimination, Asians have been cited first year after year. In the 2009 UMR Research report on perceived discrimination in NZ, 75% of respondents believed that Asians experienced either a “great deal” or “some” discrimination, compared to the somewhat fewer number of people who believe Pacific peoples (58%) and Māori (56%) face discrimination (UMR Research Ltd, 2009). 5