title: Strangers, sojourners, selves: the intercultural communication experiences of ethnic Chinese students in western tertiary education

authors: Holmes, Prue

abstract: This study describes the intercultural communication experiences of Confucian heritage culture students in a western tertiary setting. Exploring the intercultural communication encounters enabled an understanding of how these ethnic Chinese students socially constructed their everyday lives. In addition, the study focused on their reconstruction and renegotiation of cultural identity and the extent to which they built a third culture. Thus, it is a study of intercultural communication, culture, and cultural identity.

Principles of ethnography and inductive inquiry provided the exploratory means to uncover these intercultural communication experiences. The context of this study was a university in New Zealand, and the 14 participants were from China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Some were newly arrived. Others were permanent residents. Prolonged investigation in the field enabled themes to emerge, providing a thick description of the participants’ lifeworlds and the basis for theory building.

The contribution of this thesis is in the following key areas: the enactment of intercultural communication in the negotiation of a new learning environment; the process of adaptation and accommodation of the cultural other; cultural identity change as participants negotiate the host environment; and the initiation of third culture building. Participants from China, who had or sought permanent residence, showed adaptation and renegotiation of social worlds and the desire to acculturate. By contrast, the undergraduate students from Malaysia, who saw their future in their first cultures, demonstrated a going back mentality and less desire to accommodate and understand the host society. Thus, the study contributes towards an understanding of cultural difference as it created, maintained, and reconstructed and renegotiated in intercultural communication.

text: Strangers, sojourners, selves: the intercultural communication experiences of ethnic Chinese students in western tertiary education This study describes the intercultural communication experiences of Confucian heritage culture students in a western tertiary setting. Exploring the intercultural communication encounters enabled an understanding of how these ethnic Chinese students socially constructed their everyday lives. In addition, the study focused on their reconstruction and renegotiation of cultural identity and the extent to which they built a third culture. Thus, it is a study of intercultural communication, culture, and cultural identity.

Principles of ethnography and inductive inquiry provided the exploratory means to uncover these intercultural communication experiences. The context of this study was a university in New Zealand, and the 14 participants were from China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Some were newly arrived. Others were permanent residents. Prolonged investigation in the field enabled themes to emerge, providing a thick description of the participants’ lifeworlds and the basis for theory building.

The contribution of this thesis is in the following key areas: the enactment of intercultural communication in the negotiation of a new learning environment; the process of adaptation and accommodation of the cultural other; cultural identity change as participants negotiate the host environment; and the initiation of third culture building. Participants from China, who had or sought permanent residence, showed adaptation and renegotiation of social worlds and the desire to acculturate. By contrast, the undergraduate students from Malaysia, who saw their future in their first cultures, demonstrated a going back mentality and less desire to accommodate and understand the host society. Thus, the study contributes towards an understanding of cultural difference as it created, maintained, and reconstructed and renegotiated in intercultural communication.

year: 2000

title: Trade, migration, poverty and inequality: A global perspective

authors: Abdul Ghani, Rosmaiza Binti

subjects: Bilateral trade

abstract: Trade and migration have been extensively studied in a variety of disciplines but their inter relationship is still arguable. It is crucial to understand how trade and migration are linked, since they are important elements in a modern, globalized economy. This thesis presents three interconnected studies on trade and migration that make use of newly estimated international migration flows data, to understand these relationships and the potential contributions of trade and migration to global poverty and inequality reduction. The first study examines the bi-directional relationship between trade and migration using international bilateral trade and migration flows data within a seemingly unrelated regression gravity model framework. The study finds that trade and migration are complements, which means that larger migration flows are associated with higher trade flows, and vice versa. Although these results do not definitively demonstrate causality, they suggest that, if world trade decreases due to countries implementation on current protectionist policies, migration flows might also be likely to decline. The second study extends the investigation by examining the causal relationship between trade and migration. The study uses a novel instrumental variables strategy, utilising World Trade Organisation (WTO) affiliation and average tariff rates as instruments within a gravity model framework, to overcome endogeneity in the regression model. The results suggest that trade is a causal driver of migration. This means that migration flows would increase following an increase in trade flows. The third study investigates whether international trade or migration has a larger effect on global extreme poverty and inequality. Again, an instrumental variables approach is used to address any endogeneity problems. The results suggest that trade has a larger potential impact on reducing extreme poverty and inequality. Overall, the outcomes of this thesis are important to policy makers in countries where growing migration is a political issue, and to origin countries that want to restrict the mobility of migrants and reduce the brain drain from their countries. It suggests that how countries treat their borders influences poverty and income inequality outcomes. This thesis suggests that trade provides a greater impact than migration on extreme poverty as well as inequality. Therefore, a country might want to allow freer trade by reducing their national border barriers, in order to reduce extreme poverty and inequality.

text: Trade, migration, poverty and inequality: A global perspective Trade and migration have been extensively studied in a variety of disciplines but their inter relationship is still arguable. It is crucial to understand how trade and migration are linked, since they are important elements in a modern, globalized economy. This thesis presents three interconnected studies on trade and migration that make use of newly estimated international migration flows data, to understand these relationships and the potential contributions of trade and migration to global poverty and inequality reduction. The first study examines the bi-directional relationship between trade and migration using international bilateral trade and migration flows data within a seemingly unrelated regression gravity model framework. The study finds that trade and migration are complements, which means that larger migration flows are associated with higher trade flows, and vice versa. Although these results do not definitively demonstrate causality, they suggest that, if world trade decreases due to countries implementation on current protectionist policies, migration flows might also be likely to decline. The second study extends the investigation by examining the causal relationship between trade and migration. The study uses a novel instrumental variables strategy, utilising World Trade Organisation (WTO) affiliation and average tariff rates as instruments within a gravity model framework, to overcome endogeneity in the regression model. The results suggest that trade is a causal driver of migration. This means that migration flows would increase following an increase in trade flows. The third study investigates whether international trade or migration has a larger effect on global extreme poverty and inequality. Again, an instrumental variables approach is used to address any endogeneity problems. The results suggest that trade has a larger potential impact on reducing extreme poverty and inequality. Overall, the outcomes of this thesis are important to policy makers in countries where growing migration is a political issue, and to origin countries that want to restrict the mobility of migrants and reduce the brain drain from their countries. It suggests that how countries treat their borders influences poverty and income inequality outcomes. This thesis suggests that trade provides a greater impact than migration on extreme poverty as well as inequality. Therefore, a country might want to allow freer trade by reducing their national border barriers, in order to reduce extreme poverty and inequality.

year: 2020

title: Viewing the world through a wider lens: Māori and council planning documents

authors: Kennedy, Nathan

subjects: New Zealand

abstract: My effort to convey an iwi perspective on environmental resource management - what we call kaitiakitanga – should highlight for new planners about to enter the profession that the environmental perspectives of hapū  and iwi (which are provided for in the RMA), are currently not well covered in either mainstream local government planning or education.

text: Viewing the world through a wider lens: Māori and council planning documents My effort to convey an iwi perspective on environmental resource management - what we call kaitiakitanga – should highlight for new planners about to enter the profession that the environmental perspectives of hapū  and iwi (which are provided for in the RMA), are currently not well covered in either mainstream local government planning or education.

year: 2008-07-30