FROM MORAL COMMUNITY TO MORAL COMMUNITIES: THE FOUNDATIONS OF MIGRANT SOCIAL SOLIDARITY AMONG SAMOANS IN URBAN AOTEAROA/NEW ZEALAND

Authors

Cluny Macpherson, University of AucklandFollow

Abstract

There is clear evidence of moral community within early expatriate migrant Samoan communities in New Zealand. This moral community was partly the consequence of many migrants’ common life experiences and their resultant commitment to, and belief in, the integrity of their worldview and lifestyle. While commitment was a necessary condition, it was not a sufficient condition for moral community. This article argues that critical to the emergence of moral community were demographic, political, and economic factors—often underrated in anthropological explanations—that influenced the choice of migrants by their families, the processes of migration, and the concentration of migrants in residential and occupational areas. First- and second-generation New Zealand–born Samoans grow up with different social, political, and economic realities, and they do not share the social experiences that underpinned their parents’ and grandparents’ moral community. They may reconstitute a new form of moral community derived from parental cultures and common experiences of, and social positions within, New Zealand society.

Recommended Citation

Macpherson, Cluny (2002) "FROM MORAL COMMUNITY TO MORAL COMMUNITIES: THE FOUNDATIONS OF MIGRANT SOCIAL SOLIDARITY AMONG SAMOANS IN URBAN AOTEAROA/NEW ZEALAND," Pacific Studies Journal: Vol. 25: No. 1, Article 3.
Available at: https://digitalcollections.byuh.edu/pacific-studies-journal/vol25/iss1/3