Filipino New Zealanders

Filipino New Zealanders refers to New Zealanders who migrated from the Philippines or descendants born in New Zealand of Filipino ancestry.

The 1936 New Zealand census recorded six New Zealand residents born in the Philippines. The country's intake of Filipino students began to increase in 1960, under the Colombo Plan; however, even as late as 1981, there were only 405 Filipinos in New Zealand. It was not until the 1990s that highly populated regions such as Wellington and Auckland (especially the suburbs of Henderson and Mount Roskill) began to see exponential growth in their respective Filipino communities.^[2] The communities themselves are known for their many Philippine-related celebrations, particularly the celebration of Philippine Independence Day every year on the Sunday nearest to 12 June. In April 2008, New Zealand's embassy indicated that they would like to increase the intake of nurses and engineers from the Philippines.^[3] In 2013 the Census recorded 40,350 people, or 1.0 percent of the population, Filipino New Zealanders.^[4]