The term includes Indians born in New Zealand, as well as immigrants from India , Fiji , other regions of Asia, parts of Africa such as South Africa and East Africa , and from other parts of the world.
Although sometimes the Indo-Kiwi definition has been expanded to people with mixed racial parentage with one Indian parent or grandparent, this can be controversial as it generally tends to remove the ethnic heritage or identity of the foreign parent or grandparent, which may be seen as insensitive to those with mixed parentage, who tend to value both their Indian and non-Indian parents and grandparents. The fifth largest language in New Zealand is Hindi, shown in the census.
According to ENZ. Indians had been employed for a long time on the European ships trading in Colonial India and the East Indies. Many of the early voyages to the Pacific either started or terminated in India and many of these ships were wrecked in the uncharted waters of the South Pacific. After establishment of first European colony in Sydney in Australia in by the colonial British Indian Empire under the British East India Company, the company had exclusive right on control of all trade to and from the penal colony.
The late s and early s saw the first wave of migration of Indians arriving in the country. A number of them came directly to New Zealand but some came via Fiji and others via other British colonies such as Burma. A large number of these early migrants were Indian teenagers, mainly from Punjab and Gujarat. Official policy in New Zealand to restrict non-European immigration resulted in difficulties for Indians to enter the country in the s.
Groups like The White New Zealand League, established in , was opposed to both Chinese and Indian immigration because it was seen as a threat to the economic prosperity of European New Zealanders.
