This chapter is drawn from a project exploring the experience of being Anglo-Indian in New Zealand. The focus is on those who left India from the 1940s until recent times. This period has seen a significant change, both in the increasing numbers of non-white migrants arriving in New Zealand, and in the ways they are regarded. Immigration policies over this time give a sense of this change and are outlined in some depth. Two significant themes from the research were identity, particularly of being ‘not quite white’, and of misidentification. The discussion draws on whiteness studies scholarship to shed light on Anglo-Indian experiences and examine how whiteness plays out in New Zealand.
Anglo-Indians of New Zealand: Colour and the Social Construction of Identity