Session 1 · TRACE: Time & Place
Assisted Passage and the post-war shift
- 10 minAfter the Second World War, New Zealand needed workers. From 1947 the government paid most of the fare for more than 100,000 people, mainly young British, to come here. A Dutch scheme followed in 1950.
- 20 minTimeline (Activity: 'Who could come?'): place events on a class timeline: the Chinese poll tax (1881), the 1920 immigration law, Assisted Passage (1947), Pacific migration in the 1960s, the 1974 policy change based on skills rather than race, the end of Assisted Passage (1975), the 1987 change that opened migration from Asia.
- 15 minWho was welcome, and who wasn't? Colour-code the timeline: open doors, closed doors. What changed and why?
- 5 minWrite one sentence: how did government decisions change who lives in your town?
Session 2 · TRACE: Relationships
Networks and ties to home
- 10 minSettlement clusters: why do people often settle near others from the same place? Brainstorm: language, church, jobs, food, someone to ask for help.
- 20 minNetwork web (Activity: 'Network web'): follow one Pacific or Indian family case study. Draw the web of people, churches, sports clubs, shops and relatives that helped them settle, and the links back to the islands or India (money sent home, visits, phone calls).
- 15 minCompare two groups: Cook Islanders (New Zealand citizens since 1949) and Samoans (the 1962 Treaty of Friendship). How did citizenship and rules change their journeys?
- 5 minAdd two support networks to your class base map.
Getting started
A timeline strip with the years already marked helps everyone place the events.
Stretch
Read about the 1956 Hungarian refugees or the 1944 Polish children at Pahiatua. How was a refugee journey different from an assisted migrant's?
Checkpoint
You can explain how government schemes and laws changed who came to New Zealand, and describe how networks help people settle.
Activities for this week
- Network web: What helps a family settle in a new place?
Useful this week
- History of immigration ↗ The full story of who came to New Zealand, when and why, from the first voyagers to today.
- Assisted immigration revives: 1946 to 1975 ↗ How the Assisted Passage and Dutch schemes brought post-war migrants.
- Pacific migrations ↗ How Polynesian voyagers explored the Pacific and settled Aotearoa, the first great migration.
- The end of a 'white New Zealand' policy ↗ Pacific migration in the 1950s–70s and the 1974 policy change.
- Urban Māori ↗ Why Māori moved to the towns and cities after the war, with numbers and personal stories.
- Samoans ↗ The story of Samoan migration and community life in New Zealand.