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The national census is often seen as a site of struggle for minorities seeking recognition and equality. Much less is known about the conditions under which ethnic majorities are galvanized to stake identity claims in the census. This article examines recent trends in New Zealand where an increasing number of people from the dominant New Zealand European group are redefining themselves as ethnic New Zealanders. Drawing from the literature on ethnic boundaries, we theorize the factors underlying the surge in New Zealander identification, and present census data to demonstrate its selective appeal. We also review patterns of national naming in North America and Australia to show that the New Zealander phenomenon reflects a broader shift by settler state majorities to reimagine their identities. The implications for ethnic counting in other contexts are briefly considered. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since 1991 a growing share of the New Zealand population has reported more than one ethnic group in the census, with rates especially high among children. A key challenge arising from the collection of ethnicity data is deciding where to count people who record more than one group. In this paper we explore how a self-prioritised measure of main ethnicity may facilitate and improve the usage of multiple-ethnic data. We do so using 2006 data from wave one of the Youth Connectedness survey of early adolescents. We find that three-quarters of youth who recorded more than one ethnic group were able to choose a main group when asked to do so. Though we have reservations about using a main ethnicity measure to output ethnic data, we see promise for research that seeks to better understand identification processes and their relations with ethnic identity and inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article focuses on the issues about the Maori language, particularly the moves to support, maintain, and revitalize, the language at the change of the Millennium. The author mentions that the language is seen as a key element for the cultural and ethnic identity of the Maori community. It discusses the conflict of interest between the Maori community and the state government regarding the revitalization process of the Maori language. The author implied that the Maori language was seen as a sign of contradiction at the beginning of the Third Millennium.

This note reports on research investigating whether the ethnic groups of young adolescent New Zealanders are fully represented when data are prioritised so that only one ethnicity per person is counted. Prioritised data reported from the school sector are compared with non-prioritised reported data from the 2006 census, and also with census data when prioritised. The research clearly indicates that the prioritising of data leads to significant understatements in the reporting of proportions of Pacific and Asian domestic students enrolled in our schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing movement to integrate conceptual tools from the health inequalities field into research that examines the relationship between inequalities and chances of child protection system contact. This article outlines the key concepts of an inequalities perspective, and discusses how these apply to inequalities in child protection in the Aotearoa New Zealand context. Drawing on existing research, this article shows that while there is evidence of links between deprivation, ethnicity, location and system contact, a more systematic research agenda shaped by an inequalities perspective would contribute to understanding more fully the social determinants of contact with the child protection system. An inequalities perspective provides balance to the current ‘social investment’ policy approach that targets individuals and families for service provision, with little attention to how structural inequalities impact on system contact. Directions for research are discussed, with some specific questions suggested. These include questions relating to the relationships between social inequalities and various decision points in the child protection system; if a social gradient exists and how steep it is; the inter-relationship between ethnicity, deprivation and patterns of system contact; and how similarly deprived children in different locations compare with each other in relation to child protection system contact, that is, is there an ‘inverse intervention law’ operating? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]