Barriers to refuge · New Zealand · 1931 to 1939
Immigration preferences and official discretion narrow escape routes for people facing Nazi persecution.
Explore New ZealandPublished by WTJPublication updated
1931 to 1939
Barriers to refuge · An immigration application can decide a family's future
Immigration preferences and official discretion narrow escape routes for people facing Nazi persecution.
Who is judged suitable?
The 1920 immigration law required permits from people outside preferred British and Irish categories, leaving suitability to ministerial discretion. In 1931, restrictions on European newcomers tightened further. Rules about capital, employment and skills gave officials considerable power over applicants whose need for safety did not fit an economic selection system.
A limited route to safety
About 1,100 mainly Jewish refugees from Nazi Europe were accepted between Hitler's rise and the outbreak of war. Many others were refused as supposedly difficult to absorb. Admission offered real safety to those who arrived, while leaving the wider restrictive policy intact. This estimate concerns arrivals over several years, not a count of Holocaust survivors.
Neighbours support refugee applications
The Christchurch Refugees' Emergency Committee supported applications by Jewish and other refugees from Hitler's regime before war began in September 1939. Its work shows that restrictive decisions were contested locally. Helping an applicant required organized effort, and a sympathetic committee could not itself grant the permission that immigration officials controlled.