Growing diversity increases need for languages policy

Growing diversity increases need for national languages policy—Royal Society of New Zealand

Growing levels of diversity forecast for New Zealand make a national approach to languages more urgent, according to the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Today Statistics New Zealand released projections for population growth amongst New Zealand’s major ethnic categories. For the four major components of the population—European (and other), Māori, Asian and Pacific— the European (and other) share drops from 75 per cent of the total population in 2013 to 66 per cent by 2038, while the Māori and Asian populations grow to 20 and 21 per cent and the Pacific to 11 per cent. Note that people can identify with more than one ethnicity.

Reflecting on these projections, policy makers were encouraged to think strategically and comprehensively about Aotearoa/New Zealand’s future national language requirements at a workshop held in Wellington today, timed to coincide with the announcement of the Statistics New Zealand projections.

The workshop follows on from the 2013 Royal Society of New Zealand paper Languages in Aotearoa/New Zealand, which called for a comprehensive, across-government languages policy to be developed, given that New Zealand’s population is now much more diverse than it has ever been in the past.

Speaker at the workshop and lead of the panel that produced the Languages in Aotearoa paper, Associate Professor Sharon Harvey, Head of the School of Language and Culture at AUT University, said that diversity and difference in language and culture are key elements of the history, identity and everyday life of New Zealand.

“New Zealand is legislatively a bicultural nation, founded on Te Tiriti o Waitangi. In 2015, New Zealand’s linguistic and cultural diversity surpasses any level of complexity we have previously known or experienced, with more than 160 languages being spoken in our homes, playgrounds and workplaces. Yet New Zealand is overwhelmingly a publicly monolingual country. Apart from on Marae and at specific cultural events like Chinese New Year, Diwali and the Pasifika Festival, English dominates nearly every aspect of public life.

“We would like to see a comprehensive, across-government, languages policy that would provide New Zealand with a joined up approach to recognising and working with the many languages and cultures of our country.

“Not only would this promote greater national capacity in languages but it would also contribute significantly to greater equity and opportunity for all.”

Professor Richard Bedford, Professor of Migration Studies at AUT University and President-elect of the Royal Society of New Zealand, provided a preliminary analysis of the National Ethnic Projections.

“By 2038, people who identify as Māori could number over 1 million on the basis of the median projections. A similar situation could exist for people who identify with an Asian ethnicity.

“Statistics New Zealand notes that ethnic projections are more than just of academic interest. They help ethnic communities to understand their own changing populations and assist planning in areas such as education and health. We would add that they are also important for considering implications for language acquisition and domains-of-use.

“The projections mean that within the next 25 years languages from Asia (especially Hindi and Mandarin (Northern Chinese)) will become much more prominent languages in New Zealand. New Zealanders who are monolingual will find themselves increasingly excluded from parts of conversations in social as well as business settings.

“Monolingualism is not a logical strategy to pursue if one wants to be included in an increasingly diverse and mobile society.

“In order to begin to make inroads into these issues that affect people’s lives across every policy domain, we need to discuss a national languages policy for New Zealand.”

Some of the areas identified as requiring urgent attention are:
• The continuing uncertain trajectory for te reo Māori;
• The need for Pacific languages to support the improvement of outcomes for Pacific people;
• The immediate threats of language extinction for the Pacific languages that New Zealand has a strong connection with: Tokelauan, Cook Islands Māori and Niuean;
• The slow growth in numbers of Pākehā and Māori New Zealanders who can speak languages of major sources of immigrants and destinations for exports in the Asian region;
• The small progress in the widespread recognition and implementation of New Zealand Sign Language;
• The need for comprehensive provision of English language education for English language learners at all stages of the life cycle, including English literacy and numeracy education;
• The unequal outcomes New Zealanders face in public institutions because of their personal language profile: in the health, justice, immigration, workplace and education fields;
• The language capacities New Zealand loses when children begin school multilingual and leave school functionally monolingual in English.

View paper Languages in Aotearoa/New Zealand at www.royalsociety.org.nz/languages

View Statistics New Zealand's National Ethnic Population Projections (2013-2038).

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