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Story: Immigration regulation

Fears about Asian immigration

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Fears about Asian immigration

A fear that ‘real’ (that is, British) New Zealanders would be crowded out of their own country by Asians is reflected in this cartoon. A working man and a returned soldier are having to stand in a bus because Asians have taken all the seats. The cartoon appeared in the New Zealand Freelance in 1920, the same year that the Immigration Restriction Amendment Act gave the government the power to keep out ‘unsuitable’ immigrants.

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How to cite this page

Ann Beaglehole, Immigration regulation – 1914–1945: restrictions on non-British immigration, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/cartoon/1372/fears-about-asian-immigration (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Ann Beaglehole, published 4 March 2009, updated 1 August 2015.