Wellington notes

David Barber

Perceptions a barrier for islanders overseas

“BECAUSE we share the same geographical environment, and because many Pacific Island people have made New Zealand their home, does not mean that, through some magical process of osmosis, New Zealand understands and knows the region.”

That comment, which tends to state what is obvious to those who take a close interest in New Zealand-Pacific relations, was made in the report of the former Labour government’s South Pacific policy review group, published last year.

A recent survey illustrated that the point is equally true for New Zealander’s perceptions of those people from the islands of the Pacific who have made this country their home.

Sadly, it showed that prejudices and stereotyping which hinder the progress and development of an estimated 135,00-160,000 Pacific people in New Zealand continue to exist.

The survey was conducted by the Pacific Island Employment Development Board, an organisation established, according to its mission statement, to provide island people “with increased opportunities to attain autonomy, self determination and economic security”.

It is clear that a key route to this aim is a substantial increase in the number of Pacific people actively participating in the New Zealand economy. It was equally clear to the board that there were certain barriers to the entry of those people into the business community. The survey was conducted to try to identify those barriers.

The results came as something of a shock to the board.

They revealed that while Chinese and Indian immigrants were widely perceived as being good business people, those who had come from the islands of the Pacific were regarded as being “too laid back ... too happy-go-lucky”, or “not on the ball.”

And this, despite the evidence of many Pacific Island people who have succeeded in business in their adopted country. As Pacific Island Affairs Minister Bill Birch has said: “For many years now the Pacific Island communities in New Zealand have contributed greatly, as with other communities, to the economic and social development of this country.”

Some people who responded to the survey said they wouldn’t go into a shop run by Pacific Island people because they thought it would be badly managed.

Others said they wouldn’t buy anything from a food shop run by Pacific people because they thought what they sold wouldn’t be fit to eat.

As Birch said: “It is certainly wrong to think that anyone from one cultural group has more or less business acumen than another. Furthermore, with many Pacific Island business role models that we have in this country, such a belief could not be further away from the truth.”

One problem is the apparent unwillingness of banks and other financial institutions to lend capital to Pacific Island

Wellington notes

business people. One told the survey: “I can tell they are not interested as soon as they see me walking through the door.”

The board commissioned the survey to find out exactly what it is up against in trying to change these negative attitudes. It deduced that it had a dual dilemma, based around the central fact that there is simply no traditional pattern of Pacific Island people in business. It is certainly true that the people who developed trade and commerce in the

islands were predominantly European.

So, on the one hand, Europeans are not accustomed to dealing with people of the Pacific in a business situation, and on the other, Pacific people do not see themselves as having commercial savvy or expertise.

Thus, there is a need not only to change New Zealander’s negative attitudes, but to change the island people’s perceptions of themselves.

Since its establishment in 1985, the Pacific Island Employment Development Board has advanced loans totalling more than S 5 million to 140 enterprises founded or being expanded by Pacific Island people. It is a credit to the board’s cautiousness and insistence on closely monitoring the use of its loan money that only a handful of these projects have failed.

But the board acknowledges that there is much more to be done to achieve its aim of developing a strong economic base for Pacific Island people in New Zealand. So it is now moving towards a more pro-active position in which it will develop its own business projects, get them up and running and then hand them over to approved people.

The first of these is now being planned, and it will use some of the lessons learned in the business survey. Details are still under wraps, but it will be a small retail chain of three shops in the Auckland area.

The board has looked at how to overcome the perceived lack of professionalism that came through in the survey Results.

One solution is to make it a franchise operation so that the products sold and the staff training are of a clearly defined, consistent standard. The staff will wear uniforms and the shops will be decorated in the same way; they will pool advertising and distribution costs.

These are tactics tried and tested by major international chains like McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Significantly, the shops will not be directed solely at Pacific Island customers, but will aim at having wide appeal to all New Zealanders.

It is a brave experiment, devised to get a handful of Pacific Island business people looking visibly successful in a non ethnic environment, in the hope that this will help change

public attitudes.

The board is also stepping up ancillary activities such as business workshops and skills training. It is actively promoting the 700 different scholarships and grants that are available to young Pacific people every year, showing them by means of a glossy magazine called Achievers that youngsters just like them can succeed in a wide range of fields.

Api Rongo-Raea, a Cook Islander who heads the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs, says education must be the main vehicle for the economic development of the people for whom he has responsibility.

It is only education, he says, that can make Pacific people “smarter” and give them the confidence they need to deal with a system that is inherently alien.

“The more a Pacific Island person knows about the system and knows his way around it, the less likely he or she is to suffer discrimination.” □