ABSTRACT
For 9 years, New Zealand's refugee resettlement programme discriminated against African and Middle Eastern refugees. The programme was not designed as a tool to inflame populist sensibilities but was quietly pursued and put into policy with no public discussion. This chapter examines how this policy came about, what narratives were deployed to both justify and obstruct discussion of this policy and how the author's activist work in constructing narratives would, ultimately, lead to a reversal of the policy under a new government. Melding together a discourse analysis of political and media comments with a form of self-reflexive praxis, this chapter supplies insight into both narratives deployed, and the ways that narratives can be repeated, avoided and omitted. Its methodology and findings therefore offer scholars and activists within and beyond New Zealand a nuanced view of how narratives of racial discrimination, especially against Muslim refugees, can be both advanced and countered through both rhetorical and strategic measures.
