‘I know my roots are Indian but my thinking is Kiwi’: hybridisation, identity and ‘Indians’ in New Zealand

This article explores identity among the South Asian diaspora in New Zealand. Using data from qualitative interviews with South Asian New Zealanders, it argues that analyses of hybridity need to consider different varieties of hybridisation in relation to ethnicity, religion, language and national identity. South Asian identities may be hybridised with ‘Kiwi’ identity variously represented as values, idealised citizenship and a White Western lifestyle. The data analysed in the paper demonstrate the independence and salience of religious as distinct from ethnic identities in the South Asian diaspora in New Zealand. Hybridisation results, in part, from a conscious strategy on the part of parents who encourage children to identify with their ethnic origins, language, nation and religion.