Lecture/Seminar 10 Appendix:The context of the two New Zealand quotes.

In the lecture I reproduced two apparently contradictory 'attitudes' expressed by a white New Zealander talking about Polynesian immigrants. Here are the quotes in their context. See the discussion of these materials in Potter and Wetherell's chapter in Wetherell et al, pp 206-207).

The parts that I extracted in the lecture are in italics.

Interviewer: [Do] you think that, say, immigration from the Pacific islands should be encouraged ( ) to a much larger extent than it is? It's fairly restricted at the moment.

Respondent: Yes. Um I think there's some problems in, in encouraging that too much, is that they come in uneducated about our ways, and I think it's important they understand what they're coming to. I, what I would li.. rather see is that, sure, bring them into New Zealand, right, and train them in a skill, and encourage them to go back again because their dependence on us will be lesser. I mean ( ) while the people back there are dependent on the people being here earning money to send it back, I mean, that's a very very negative way of looking at something. ( ) people really should be trying, they should be trying to help their own nation first.

and

Respondent: Polynesians, they are doing jobs now that white people wouldn't do. So in many sectors of the community or or life, um, we would be very much at a loss without them, I think. Um, what I would like to see is more effort being made to train them into skills, skilled jobs, because without skilled people, white people, have left the country to go to other places. I think that if we encouraged more Polynesians and Maoris to be skilled people, they would want to stay here, they're not as um as uh nomadic as New Zealanders are (Interviewer: Haha) so I think that would be better.

You may like to consider how the context of the italicised lines helps understand what the speaker is doing in these two extracts.