Japanese

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Japanese New Zealanders(Nakanishi 2000)

 

1.       Background (Recent Immigrants)

post WWII

1976        1,245

1986        1,791

1996   7,461

2001   8,067

 

2.       Types of Japanese

·     Permanent residents

·     Temporary residents

           o    expatriate business people (Sojourners)

           o    working holiday makers

           o    long-term students

 

New Zealand: 1996:   

2,517 immigrants

2,803 temporary residents

 

Auckland:              

1,559 residents     

1,120 temporary residents

 

3.       Immigrant population

·     gender imbalance (62% women)

·     most 1^st generation

·     no residential contiguity

(Sojourners in East Akld)

 

       Mixed Marriages: “kiwi-husbando”

·     Language use in the home

·     One Parent-One Child

 

4.             Present Study:

Data Collection:

face-to-face interviews using a self-report questionnaire

 

At least one parent interviewed per family

Participants: 45 caregivers of children over the age of 5 years

 

Immigrants:

Endogamous (J-J)

Exogamous (J-NJ)

Children born in NZ  (or lived in NZ most of the lives)

Sojourners: posted in NZ for an assigned period (usually 3-5 years)

Children born in any country

 

5.              Question: What influences do residential status and mixed marriages have on children’s proficiency?

Residential Status: attitudes towards homeland

Mixed Marriages: Language Use in the home

 

6.             Japanese Proficiency:

1 (no competence)

6 native-like proficiency

 

Table: Mean scores for Japanese Proficiency

	Sojourners Child	Non-Mixed Marriages Child (resident)	Mixed Marriages Child (resident)
S	5.81	4.75	3.07
L	5.81	4.79	3.07
R	5.69	4.00	3.00
W	5.46	3.85	2.88

              3.85                                 2.88

 

Trends:

a.   Speaking and Listening skills tend to be stronger than reading and writing skills

b.  Sojourner children have greater proficiency in Japanese

c.   Children from mixed marriages have less proficiency in Japanese than children from non-mixed marriages

 

7.             Social Networks: to measure the degree of integration into the community

 

Social Network Score:

·      Social activities (membership in Japanese associations/attendance at Japanese social clubs, social gatherings, attendance at Japanese school)

·      Personal interaction (telephone calls to sojourners, telephone calls to immigrants, visits to sojourners, visits to immigrants, Japanese visitors, frequency of talk with other Japanese people, frequency of phone calls with other Japanese people)

·      Orientation to Japan (having relatives from Japan, length of stay of relatives, telephone calls to Japan, Trips to Japan)

Trends:

·      Social networks affect Japanese language maintenance

·      Sojourners do not interact on a regular basis with Residents

(Two separate Japanese communities)

·      Different types of contact have different effects on the two types of Japanese communities

·      Immigrant groups (mixed/non-mixed) pattern in similar ways.