Mainland Chinese in New Zealand also include a substantial population of international students completing tertiary qualifications. These students, viewed by some as temporary residents, are often socially isolated from both mainstream and Chinese New Zealander society. There has been media reports of these groups facing victimisation from within their own communities [3] as well as from the population as a whole, and as being involved in Asian crime syndicates. Similarly, 1.5 generation Hong Kong migrant youths who engaged in low-level criminal activity in the 1990s, were also mistakenly considered to be professional ‘Triads’ by much of the non-Chinese public at that time. [4]
However, despite much speculation, the political and administrative status of Chinese international students as non-residents has hampered the undertaking of verifiable research about their health, societal wellbeing or their actual level of involvement in crime.