What does diversity mean to you? transcript

(upbeat music)

Blue screen appears with text: What does diversity mean to you?

Text appears at bottom left of screen: Berlinda Chin Strategic Specialist Ethnic Communities State Services Commission Te Komihana O Ngā Tari Kāwanatanga

Berlinda: So diversity for me means many things but more importantly it means the variety of life. It brings colour, it's vibrant, it brings differences and it also shares with those similarity. I think diversity is not a new phenomenon in New Zealand, diversity has been here for a long time. We have seen Chinese people since the 1800s. We've got Polish, Dutch and Hungary - people from those countries with us since World War
II.

I think in New Zealand you'll see from the latest Census 2013, over two hundred and thirteen ethnicities are identified here and almost one in four of us are disabled people. Over 20 percent of our young children aged 0 to 14 years identify with more than one ethnicity. This makes New Zealand quite a colourful nation and I believe brings as well, people say challenges, but I see opportunities.