Mäori attitudes towards immigrants have hardened in recent years while New Zealanders generally are ambivalent about the impact of immigration, according to a just-published report.

The sudy saw 750 people questioned last year and 1100 questioned in 2003, on a wide range of issues relating to immigration. It provides an overview of attitude trends, says one of its authors Sociology Professor Paul Spoonley.

Although there was no dramatic change in results between the 2003 and 2006 reports, the most significant shift was a hardening of Mäori attitudes regarding immigration over the three-year period.

This reflected Mäori perceptions that New Zealand culture was being eroded by the effects of immigration, says Professor Spoonley, Regional Director and Research Director College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Massey in Auckland.

“Mäori are more likely to agree than non-Mäori that Chinese, other Asians and Pacific peoples take jobs away from people who were born in New Zealand,” the report says.

Mäori attitudes were consistent with their “protection of interests in maintaining a bicultural society, and the assertion of their rights under the Treaty of Waitangi; and their recognition of employment opportunities that might be compromised by ongoing migration”.

Interestingly, Mäori were much less likely than non-Mäori to agree that Chinese, other Asian or Pacific peoples increase crime rates, the survey found.

But New Zealanders generally were “still quite ambivalent about immigrants”, says Professor Spoonley.

“We like the (diverse) food and we like what they’re doing to our economy by contributing skills and capital.

“But New Zealanders also see immigrants as sticking together rather than integrating, and that is seen as a negative thing.”

Aucklanders, young people and those without tertiary qualifications tended to be less positive towards immigrants, the report also said.

“Attitudes to immigrants and various aspects of immigration are usually (but not always) more negative among Aucklanders than among other New Zealanders, though perhaps less so than might be expected given the greater impact immigration has had on Auckland compared to the rest of the country,“ the report says.

The 2006 census showed that Asians were the fastest-growing ethnic group – up 9.2 per cent to 354,552 since the 2001 census. Two-thirds of the Asian population live in Auckland, where almost one in five people identify with one or more Asian ethnic groups, the highest proportion nationally.

More than a third of people living in Auckland were born overseas, compared with Southland, where around one in 13 people were born overseas.

More New Zealanders in 2006 than 2003 saw value in having immigrants fill job shortages, but they also wanted more government consultation with the public on immigration matters, the report says.