Why We Move: Migration and Belonging

You need: story cards describing real kinds of moves (a farmer whose land is too small, a student offered a university place, a family escaping war, a nurse recruited for a hospital, a young person moving to the city for work, a family moving closer to grandparents) · three large sorting mats: push, pull, forced

1. Read each story card in your group.
2. Find the push factors (reasons to leave) and the pull factors (reasons to go somewhere in particular). Some cards have both.
3. Decide which moves were forced: the person had little or no choice. These are refugees or displaced people.
4. Sort the factors into types: economic (jobs, money), social (family, education), environmental (drought, cyclones, sea-level rise) and political (war, persecution).
5. Pick one card and write the move as a short story from that person's point of view.

How you'll know: You can explain the difference between push, pull and forced migration and give an example of each type of factor.

Go further: Choose a real New Zealand migration wave and list its push and pull factors using Te Ara.

You need: a large world map (Pacific-centred if possible) · coloured card or thick wool · sticky notes · Te Ara history of immigration pages

1. Mark Aotearoa on the map.
2. For each wave, draw or lay an arrow from the place of origin to New Zealand: Polynesian voyagers, British and Irish settlers, Chinese goldminers, Indian arrivals, post-war British and Dutch migrants, Pacific peoples, Asian migrants since the late 1980s, refugees from many countries.
3. Make each arrow's thickness roughly match the number of people. This is what makes it a flow map.
4. Label each arrow with the time period and one push and one pull factor.
5. Add arrows going out too: New Zealanders who emigrated to Australia and the UK.

How you'll know: Your flow map shows at least six waves, with arrow widths and labels that someone else could read.

Go further: Make a digital flow map using a free online mapping tool, or show two time periods side by side.

You need: a family case study (Pacific, Indian or refugee background; from Te Ara or a local community) · large paper · coloured pens

1. Put the family in the middle of the page.
2. Draw lines to everyone and everything that helped: relatives already here, a church or temple, a sports club, a school, a workplace, a shop selling familiar food.
3. Draw lines in a different colour back to the place of origin: money sent home, visits, family still there, phone calls.
4. Circle the connections that helped most in the first year.
5. Write a caption: what does this web tell you about why settlement clusters form?

How you'll know: Your web shows local support networks and ties to home, and you can explain why people often settle near others from the same place.

Go further: Compare your web with another group's. What is the same for every family, and what is different?

You need: an interview plan · a consent form · a recording device or notebook · a quiet space

1. Choose someone who has moved: to New Zealand, from the country to a city, or between towns. It can be whānau, a neighbour, a staff member or a community visitor.
2. Explain the project and ask them to sign the consent form. Remind them they can skip any question.
3. Ask your open questions and listen. Ask follow-up questions like 'Can you tell me more about that?'
4. Write up three key points and one short quote in their own words.
5. Show them your write-up and check they are happy with how their words are used.

How you'll know: You have a respectful, accurate record of one person's move, which they have checked and agreed to share.

Safety: Interview people you or your whānau know, or visitors arranged by your teacher. Meet in a public or school space. Nobody has to share a story they don't want to.

Go further: Record a second interview with someone from a different generation or background, and compare the two accounts.

You need: five source cards (poll tax certificate or record, a 1920s newspaper report on the campaign against Indian market gardeners, an account of the Dawn Raids, a story about unrecognised qualifications, a refugee's account of learning English) · a source-analysis sheet

1. At each station, read the source. Who made it, when and why?
2. Name the barrier it shows: discrimination, unfair laws, language, qualifications, loneliness.
3. Find how people responded: protest, community groups, legal challenges, helping each other.
4. Record any government apology or change that followed, and when.
5. At the end, list the 'bridges' that help people belong today.

How you'll know: You can describe three barriers using evidence from sources and explain how communities or governments responded.

Go further: Write a short speech for a welcoming event explaining one barrier from history and what your town could do to help newcomers belong.

You need: a street map or base map · a survey sheet · clipboards · coloured dots · adult helpers

1. Walk the street in small groups with an adult.
2. Tally and mark evidence of migration: restaurants and food shops, places of worship, languages on signs, community halls, festivals advertised, street and building names.
3. Note older evidence too: settler churches, Victorian shopfronts, a street named after a New Zealand Company ship or person.
4. If a shop owner is happy to talk (with an adult present), ask when and why they or their family came.
5. Back in class, put coloured dots on the base map. Look for clusters.

How you'll know: Your map shows where migration is visible on the street and at least one cluster you can explain.

Safety: Stay with your adult, use crossings, and ask before photographing any person, shop or sign that shows private information.

Go further: Compare your street with an old photo of the same street from DigitalNZ. What changed?

You need: Stats NZ census counts for 6–10 suburbs or districts (two censuses) · a blank map of the areas · a calculator · coloured pencils in five shades of one colour

1. For each area, subtract the older count from the newer count to find the change.
2. Divide the change by the older count and multiply by 100 to get the percentage change.
3. Make a five-step key, such as: shrinking, no change, small growth, medium growth, big growth.
4. Shade each area: the darker the colour, the bigger the growth. Use a different colour for decline.
5. Describe the pattern: where are the fastest-growing areas? Suggest causes (new housing, jobs, migration) and consequences (school rolls, traffic, empty shops).

How you'll know: Your choropleth map has a clear key, is shaded correctly, and you can explain one cause and one consequence of the pattern.

Go further: Make a second choropleth for one ethnic group and compare the two maps.