ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the adaptation of Polynesian migrants to the two largest cities of New Zealand: Auckland with a population of approximately 650,000 and Wellington, the capital, with a population of about 300,000. Since New Zealand never had a large rural population to be attracted to the city, urban growth has come mainly from overseas migrants. Pacific Islands adult migrants interviewed in New Zealand repeatedly stress the importance of economic motives for migration. Once the migrant was on the job, social relations were a powerful predictor of satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Pacific Islands adult migrants interviewed in New Zealand repeatedly stress the importance of economic motives for migration. Historical circumstances have created in New Zealand a situation analogous to that in the United States. In both countries a white, British-based culture dominates the economic, political, and social life. Most Polynesian women have chosen group-oriented strategies of adaptation that require keeping up social networks both at work and at leisure.
