Welcoming Communities is a new programme that brings together local government and community leaders in the five regions that are piloting the initiative. They are putting out the welcome mat to newcomers: recent migrants, former refugees and international students. Where previous settlement initiatives have tended to focus on supporting newcomers, Welcoming Communities actively seeks to mobilise and involve existing residents in welcoming activities. This new approach is designed to create bridges between newcomers and locals.
The standard is a key component of the pilot programme. It provides the councils and communities that are piloting the programme over the next two years with a benchmark for what a successful welcoming community looks like. We are seeking your feedback on the draft standard before it is finalised for use by the pilot councils later this year.
I encourage you to have your say on the standard and to invite others in your networks to do the same. Subject to positive evaluation outcomes, we hope to roll the Welcoming Communities programme out more broadly across New Zealand in 2019/20. So it is important those outside of the pilot regions also have a say on the standard.
To find out more about Welcoming Communities click here. To download a copy of the draft standard click here. To go to the standard consultation page click here
Please go to welcomingcommunities@mbie.govt.nz if you have any queries about the consultation process.
In late 2014, a research team from Massey and Waikato universities received $5.5 million from MBIE to examine the diversity of New Zealand over the next six years. An important aspect of this funding is that we signalled an association with the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity research programme on diversity in immigrant destination cities (GlobaldiverCities). The funding will provide us with an opportunity to explore some of the same issues that are part of the GlobaldiverCities programme. This also means that Auckland will effectively become the fourth city as a site of study. (The others are New York, Singapore and Johannesburg). This work has been confirmed by an MoU between Massey University and Max Planck during my visit in November 2014 (see link https://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/about-massey/news/article.cfm?mnarticle_uuid=1CA55C48-D372-7F7D-9913-C5F6CA0FAE42).
In 2015, Max Planck and the Berlin-Brandenburg Science Circle held a conference on urban diversity in Berlin, 8-10 April 2015. They invited 18 senior scholars, (including Paul Spoonley) plus 3 early career or emerging scholars from each participating country, plus a group of Max Planck researchers. The senior scholars gave a “Master Class” while the early career researchers provided 3 minute presentations (which were fantastic). The New Zealand contingent included: Paul Spoonley, Dr Angelique Praat (Research Officer, CaDDANZ, Massey University), Dr Jia Ye (CaDDANZ, Massey University and a former Max Planck researcher on the GlobaldiverCities project), Dr Trudie Cain (Researcher, Auckland Council and involved with CaDDANZ) and Dr Matt Roskruge (CaDDANZ, University of Waikato). The New Zealand Embassy hosted a meal for the New Zealand contingent plus four members of the Max Planck Institute during the conference. It reflected the Embassy’s interest in the growing research collaboration between CaDDANZ and Max Planck, and the latter staff were thrilled by the invitation and event.
Funding to help further this research collaboration has been received from the Royal Society of New Zealand under the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Scheme. This will allow several things to take place:
It is proving to be a very interesting association that has major implications for the New Zealand researchers involved – and which is now a critical part of the CaDDANZ programme.
Professor Jacques Poot has been approched by the Dutch team on 'migration diversity' to interact with them as both of our projects develop further. Information on the Dutch Migration Diversity project is below.
The growing diversity of migration creates both economic opportunities and social problems for cities and regions. The migrants who are settling in the Netherlands in the 21st century originate from all parts of the world, and vary widely in terms of their education level and socioeconomic position, their migration motives, their length of stay and their residency status. The migrant population is becoming ever more fluid. ‘Permanent temporariness’ is a key characteristic of contemporary labour migration and mobility (by both highly skilled and low-skilled migrants). The influx of different migrant groups (asylum-seekers, family migrants, temporary or permanent labour migrants) demands a customised approach to integration. For more information click here.
MU Invite Maria Schiller