Dr Kate McMillan: Democracy in the new New Zealand

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New Zealand is uniquely liberal in giving the right to vote in national elections to permanent residents after one year's residence.

But we shouldn't be too surprised or worried if not all eligible migrants exercise this right immediately. What we should be worried about is if they, and their children, do not ever develop the voting habit.

With the overseas-born making up more than 25 per cent of New Zealand's population, low levels of electoral participation among immigrants and their descendants will not be good for our electoral democracy.

Data from New Zealand and abroad show that new migrants vote at rates lower than the native-born. Such data also show that immigrants from some countries vote at lower levels than migrants from other countries, even those within the same broad "region".

Those from China, South Korea and Taiwan, for example, are less likely to vote than those from India.

But the New Zealand data also show that long-term migrants as a whole - that is, those who have been in the country more than five years before an election - have turnout rates similar to the New Zealand-born.

Turnout, in other words seems to increase with length of residency. This is completely understandable. The focus of many new migrants in their first years of living in New Zealand is to find a house, a job, a school for their kids.

Becoming familiar with New Zealand society and politics takes longer. That not all new migrants exercise their right to vote doesn't take away from the fact that they can vote. That option can help make migrants feel that New Zealand is an open and welcoming society.

However, not all non-voting among the immigrant population can be explained by the recentness of their arrival. For some ethnic groups, particularly some in the broad 'Asian' and 'Pacific' groupings, lower levels of voting appear to endure past the period of recent arrival.

As these are also two of the ethnic groups with the highest rate of population growth in New Zealand, entrenched levels of non-voting among these groups will become more politically significant over time. Those populations risk having their interests under-represented in parliament and the legislation it passes.

For researchers and government agencies interested in promoting levels of immigrant voting, the immediate challenge is to better understand why some long-term immigrants develop the voting habit in New Zealand and some don't. To do this we need to take account of the internal diversity of immigrants to this country.

"Asian" migrants, for example, differ widely in terms of their ethnic, religious, linguistic and cultural backgrounds, levels of democracy in their home country, reasons for migrating to New Zealand, and the resources they bring with them. More detailed statistics on sub-populations are needed to see how these factors influence turnout.

In the meantime, the ethnic media and political parties have a vital role to play in engaging immigrants in the electoral process.

In Victoria University research conducted with Asian immigrants about their electoral participation we heard repeatedly that people wanted more information about the electoral system, political parties, candidates and policies.

Making such information available in the ethnic media and at immigrant community meetings is crucial to the process of engaging immigrants with New Zealand politics.

Dr Kate McMillan is a Senior Lecturer in Politics at Victoria University of Wellington. She is working on a study of immigrant electoral participation in New Zealand with Dr Fiona Barker, also from Victoria University of Wellington.