Economic liberalisation and the mobility of minority groups: Evidence from Māori in New Zealand

Between 1984 and 1993, New Zealand undertook comprehensive market-oriented economic reforms. In this paper, we use census data to examine how the internal mobility of M¯aori compares to that of Europeans in New Zealand in the period after these reforms. It is often suggested that M¯aori are less mobile than other ethnic groups because of attachment to particular geographical locations. If this were the case, M¯aori may have been disadvantaged in the post-reform period because they were more likely to be living in adversely affected areas and less likely to move to pursue better employment opportunities. In contrast to the anecdotal evidence, we find that M¯aori are more mobile on average than similar Europeans. However, M¯aori who live in areas with strong networks of their iwi are slightly less mobile than Europeans. The difference between M¯aori who live locally to their iwi and those who do not is even more pronounced when we consider responsiveness to local labour market shocks. Non-local M¯aori are considerably more responsive to changes in economic opportunities than are Europeans, whereas local M¯aori are almost entirely unresponsive.