Since 2007 New Zealand has continued to accept Bhutanese refugees and, as a result, Palmerston North has seen the resettlement of 476 Bhutanese Refugees. Bhutanese families arrive in New Zealand every six months. On arrival in New Zealand, all United Nations quota refugees are taken to the Auckland Mangere Refugee Resettlement Centre, where they receive any necessary medical treatment and partake in a six week programme aimed at educating them about New Zealand society (Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment. n.d.). Refugees at Mangere also received English language lessons; however, many Bhutanese refugees have learnt to speak English while living in Nepal’s refugee camps which helps them during their time in Mangere as they have an easier time communicating with staff (Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment. n.d.). During my fieldwork, my participants invited me on a trip to Mangere with them to greet their brother and his family who had just arrived in New Zealand. The following is an excerpt from my field diary detailing my experience with the family in Mangere:
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“Today was a very emotional day, as the girls were reunited with their brother after 10
years. I felt privileged to be invited along to share this family moment. I was also able to look around the refugee centre in Mangere. The girls were very excited to give me a tour. They showed me their old room, which was a small space crammed full of bunk beds. They also showed me their school, the playground they enjoyed, and the dining hall. I was surprised to see that Sarah came with bags and bags of homemade cooking for her son and his family. When I asked her why she was bringing so much food when Mangere was self-catered, she explained to me that it’s very hard to get used to New Zealand food because it is so plain and tasteless. Most people crave their cultural food during the six
weeks that they stay at Mangere.”
Academic literature about refugee communities continues to highlight the importance of resettling people close to other people from their community of origin. In their study of Vietnamese refugee communities, Zhou and Bankston (1998) point out that refugee families resettled away from their community recovered more slowly from trauma and were more likely to experience culture shock and feelings of isolation than those who were resettled as neighbours. Refugee community members form close bonds with each other quickly, because there is a mutual need among members to band together for support (Zhou & Bankston, 1998). Although Sarah and her daughters were excited to move to New Zealand they found the early stages of their resettlement in Palmerston North immensely stressful. In her story, she recalls a sense of longing for her old community and sudden feelings of isolation and loneliness, as she describes her experiences on the family’s first day in their Housing New Zealand home.
“It is horrible, Jessica. Oh, I tell how what it has been like for me. I was crying lots when I first moved here because of it. There was a family that lived next door before we moved in here. In the camp where we lived, everyone was close. There were always people walking past our home. We had many people very close by. We had a habit of living close to others, all together. Then when I first came here, I feel so alone! Because there was no people walking by our house, nobody close nearby us. People got to places by car or bicycle. Nobody walked into my house and everybody talk a different language. It was very hard on my children and me: we had no English, no education, no body! My children were very small! [Sister X] was 15 at the time! She’s 20 now! [Sister X] was 8
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years old, [Sister X] was 10 years old and [Sister X] was 12 years old. They were very small young girls; I had to look after them all. Then my volunteer10 she got the key to my home, and she took us inside. Then after one hour she’s gone, no Nepali people, nobody comes for three days! When she closed the door we all started crying. ”
The Bhutanese community comprises of 114 family households. Refugee families are typically resettled in government housing, in close proximity to other refugee families and this is the case for my participants. More recently, however, Bhutanese families that have been in Palmerston North over four years are beginning to move out of the housing New Zealand homes to buy their own homes, or rent in different locations. As the Bhutanese population in Palmerston North continues to grow, and more families continue to move into housing of their own choice, the community is becoming more fragmented. However, when my participants first resettled in Palmerston North in 2007, the Bhutanese population in Palmerston North was still relatively small. Most families were housed in the same neighbourhoods; as a result, families were in close proximity of each other, as Sarah explains:
"Everyone know who everyone else is, their families and where they all come from, everyone lives right next door to each other, they are all friendly to each other, except with us, they don’t like us."
The Bhutanese community in Palmerston North is made up of a diverse range of religious affiliations. According to Refugee Services Palmerston North, the community comprises a mixture of Hindus, Buddhist, Christians and Kirant11. The Hindu population makes up 80% of the Bhutanese community. Hinduism was the most dominant religion within Nepal’s refugee camps and remains so within the Palmerston North community, with the majority of Bhutanese refugees identifying as practicing Hindus. As a result, the Hindu caste system has reformed within the Palmerston North Bhutanese community.
10 Refugee services is a volunteer organisation, although Sarah had difficult experience resettling, her experience is
not typical of all refugee families.
11 Kirant is a religion that comprises of a mixture of Hinduism and Buddhism, it originated within indigenous Nepali
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The Impact of Caste
Hindu societies are organised by caste structure, which is a system of social and economic hierarchy that distinguishes certain groups from others, based on occupational divisions. The caste system is organised by hierarchical ideologies of purity and pollution, which results in the maintenance of social and physical boundaries between castes. This amounts to a wide range of social inequalities. The International Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences describes caste as:
“The term caste refers, paradigmatically, to a social institution in India and elsewhere in South Asia in which endogamous descent groups, known as castes or subcastes are
hierarchically ranked” (Anthropology Of Caste, 2012, p. 461).
As a result, it is near impossible for a person to change or escape the caste he or she has been born into. This is particularly difficult for individuals like my participants who are born into a low caste position. As Howard (1995) explains; “dishonoured groups - such as women, low caste, and outcasts in Hindu society - have restricted roles, privileges, and obligations. Such social categorization underpins social cohesion, while a form of unequal membership in society guarantees privileges, but not human rights, for those insiders who obey the rules” (p. 2).
One of the reasons that Sarah was so willing move to New Zealand is because New Zealand is not a Hindu nation. Sarah assumed that moving to New Zealand would offer the family an escape from their low caste status. She explains:
“New Zealand will be good for us because it is not a Hindu country. This means that my
daughters will be treated with fairly and not judged by Brahmin people for being low caste. In my mind I am thinking ‘there is no caste system in New Zealand, so we all have a better chance. We should take this chance’”.