Abstract
This thesis examines three distinctive phases of immigration policy in New Zealand. This includes the early European settlement of New Zealand characterised by the emergence of a local citizenship existing within a larger supranational pan British identity. The second phase is the post World War II period where ‘New Zealand Citizenship’ is established legally and the idea of the ‘nation’ was actively promoted. The third phase is marked by the reforms carried out during the 1980s by the Fourth Labour Government, which has helped transform the ideological and regulatory environment that immigration policy occupies. Incorporating mixed methodologies and ethnohistory, this work persistently crosses the boundaries between history and anthropology. Incorporating the approaches of these two disciplines through critical engagement with law, politics, and economics this research integrates information obtained through interviews with public servants, in addition to archival material whereby documents are treated as a forum of material culture just as much as repositories of truth and polices.