With almost 18000 km between Warsaw (the capital of Poland) and Wellington (capital of New Zealand) it could be expected that these two cultures did not, in the course of history, have much to share. Quite unexpectedly however, Polish-New Zealand liaisons have always been more frequent and closer than their geographical and cultural distance would lead us to anticipate. Polish history has always been turbulent, with Poland disappearing from the map at one point for 123 years. Indeed, all 'organized' settlements of Poles in New Zealand seem to be connected directly to the difficulties they were undergoing at home. According to the 2006 census there were 2,004 Polish born residents living in New Zealand. In addition a further 1,965 claim Polish identity and belong to more than one ethnic group (Statistics New Zealand, 2006).1 While Polish culture is celebrated, especially among the 'old' generation of Poles, for their children and grandchildren it is not easy to maintain. New Zealand is physically isolated: its nearest large neighbor, Australia, is 1500 km away. Travelling to Europe is expensive and lengthy. According to the Ministry of Tourism only 5% of nearly 2 million outbound journeys by New Zealanders in 2008 were made to Europe. In 2009 there were only 792 trips from New Zealand to Poland (Ministry of Economic Development).
|Title of host publication||Immigration|
|Subtitle of host publication||Policies, Challenges and Impact|
|Publisher||Nova Science Publishers|
|Number of pages||24|
|Publication status||Published - Feb 2013|