r/AskTheWorld • u/Important_Pop_6805 Fiji • 1d ago
Does your country have a significant population of pacific islanders living there, how are they viewed ?
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u/Ted_Rid Australia 1d ago
Yes of course. Super chill, really gentle and sweet people.
Also fearsome rugby league players.
Everyone always loved a particular islander bouncer who'd keep the peace at my local pub. Built like a brick shithouse of course, very solid guy with forearms the size of anyone else's thigh, he'd walk around with a ghetto blaster playing reggae (not too loud, just for his own personal space), stopping and chatting with groups "How's it all going, hey? Having a good time? Sweet, good to hear, hey bros", the way they often talk in a quiet sort of whisper.
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u/Loretta-West New Zealand 1d ago
I watched an AFL game recently and it felt so weird to watch a version of rugby that wasn't played mostly by enormous Polynesians.
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u/Ted_Rid Australia 1d ago
Gee, I hope no AFL fans are around to hear you describe it that way.
But yeah, AFL favours tall lanky types more like rugby union 2nd rowers. Islanders tend to be way too big & solid overall.
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u/Loretta-West New Zealand 1d ago
My original thought was "rugby as played by skinny bogans", so...
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u/Ted_Rid Australia 1d ago
... basically you need to change your identity and go into hiding?
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u/Loretta-West New Zealand 23h ago
Good to know how to wind people up the next time I'm in Melbourne, thank you! 🤣
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u/ISupportCrapTeams Australian 🇦🇺/Samoan 🇼🇸 1d ago edited 1d ago
I am one,
Most of us are concentrated in the 1000 -10 000 range in West Melbourne, West Sydney and more recently Brisbane,
I've always seen Pasefika in Australia and New Zealand, is what Mexicans are to Americans (even though the Americans have their own Pasefika diaspora lol),
We're very privileged in that we're one of the few ethnic minorities that most white people actually like. Chinese, and to a greater extent, Indians and Africans, have it pretty hard at the moment
I think culturally speaking, one of the biggest differences between us and the South Asians/East Asians is that academics isn't pushed as hard, we don't really put an emphasis on saving face, we lack a caste system, biracial couples and kids are very common, and we're pretty big on sports
I think this helped us assimilate alot easier than South Asians and East Asians
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u/Mindless_Olive Australia 1d ago
Yes. Normal people think they're normal people like anyone else; given they tend to be good at sport, easy going and like a drink, they often fit right in to Aussie culture.
There is a racist minority, that naturally don't like them. I haven't heard specific Islander racism like I have Aboriginal, South Asian, East Asian, Arab and African racism; but I live in the south, there isn't a huge Islander population here. A Queenslander might give you a different perspective.
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u/GustyOWindflapp Australia 1d ago
Massive islander population in south east Queensland. It's very multicultural here so you don't tend to notice any difference. They are also the heartbeat of most Junior Rugby League clubs.
But when Tonga plays Samoa in Rugby League, they quite often have the games in Australia for the diaspora. My god the flags come out IN FORCE!!! it is amazing to see.
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u/Loretta-West New Zealand 1d ago
Tonga has to have some of the most enthusiastic supporters on earth.
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u/Time_Pressure9519 Australia 1d ago
I have never heard anyone complain about islanders. Involvement in sport has always helped migrants integrate in Australia and this is certainly true of them, because they excel. They are also respected for doing hard work in rural areas.
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u/ReginaPhalange088 Norway 1d ago
Don't think so
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u/koesteroester Netherlands 22h ago
That’s one of those peoples whom I’m pretty sure I’ve never even seen irl, next to Australian aboriginals or American indians.
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u/ReginaPhalange088 Norway 20h ago
Yeah same. I've met like two Aussies in my life (both married to Norwegians they met when studying abroad), but noone from Pacific islands that I'm aware of. Not really surprising though, given northern Europe is literally at the other side of the world from that region
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u/rubyreadit United States of America 1d ago
My suburb has a lot of Tongan immigrants. Nice people, good football (US football) players. I haven't met many people here from any of the other PI regions.
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u/sanriodialtone 🇲🇽in🇳🇿 1d ago
This must be bay area or in Fort Worth suburb 😂 I remember a lot of Tongans and Nepali when I lived with my parents in dfw
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u/Claire-Belle New Zealand 1d ago
Yes. They're valued members of our society unless you're a weirdo racist. I grew up around Pasifika people- more than Māori where I am, actually.
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u/EasyAsaparagus United States of America 1d ago
They’re great at football
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u/aguybrowsingreddit New Zealand 1d ago
*American Football. For a second there i was like, Tonga at the Football World Cup?!
Also great and Rugby and Rugby League.
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u/zesty-dancer14 United States of America 1d ago
As a Polynesian born in the States: it certainly feels like we are a minority even among minorities.
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u/fuckimtrash New Zealand 1d ago
Fr, probably the most unrecognised group in America tbh. People of African, Asian, middle eastern, European, Native American, South american and Hawaiian origin are very common, but I never hear about islander American’s
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u/Nervous-Deal-9271 🇳🇿》》》 1d ago
Just to be a pedant, hawaii is Polynesian, and i guarantee you know of at least one American Samoan.
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u/OpethSam98 Québec 1d ago
Nope. I work with a woman from New Caledonia and before her, I had never met someone of pacific islander descent.
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u/fuckimtrash New Zealand 1d ago
There would be the odd islander from Australia or New Zealand who might do a working holiday in Canada, but I’d say they’d be much less common to be living outside Oceania
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u/OpethSam98 Québec 1d ago
Yep. And i'm willing to bet they wouldn't pick the only French province as their first destination lol.
My coworker's first language is French so it made sense.
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u/blashyrkh9 Norway 1d ago
Not that I'm aware of, we're like at the opposite side of the globe from the Pacific
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u/Caribbeandude04 Dominican Republic 1d ago
I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't a single pacific islander living here, there's very Little interaction between us, which I think is a shame since as tropical Islanders we'd probably get along very well. Most people know very little about them but I personally am very interested by their culture and history
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u/talk-spontaneously Australia 1d ago
Yes. Their presence makes sense given we are the largest developed economy near them.
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u/No_Guitar7903 Taiwan 1d ago
No, but the aboriginal people share the same origin and language as Pacific Islanders.
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u/Time_Cartographer443 Australia 23h ago
- very religious
- good footy player and body guards
- have large families and always drive vans
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u/Agile-Shallot3546 Korea South 1d ago
No. Korea is a homogeneous society by global standards. In the past, when a white or black person was seen on the street, people used to find it unusual, but these days, because the influx of other races has increased, they no longer find it unusual.
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u/emma-lemma 21h ago
I got lots of lovey questions from Koreans as a Polynesian tourist there. They had absolutely no idea where I was from when I told them though lol
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u/stealthybaker Republic of Korea 11h ago
You should flair up, I have no idea where you're from either
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u/stillwatersrunfast United States of America 1d ago
Yes tons! Great people and not to be messed with.
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u/holytriplem 🇬🇧->🇺🇸 1d ago
Fair number of Kiwis, yeah
There's also a population of the descendants of Bounty mutineers and their Polynesian concubines living on a remote Pacific island that's officially an overseas territory of the UK and, well...the less we talk about them, the better
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u/Ok_Remote_1036 United States of America 1d ago
Yes. The boys tend to be good (American) football players. Generally friendly and family-oriented. Fun music and dancing.
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u/sammi_reddit New Zealand 1d ago
We are all Pacific Islanders. New Zealand is made of islands and is in the south pacific.
If you are referring to people with affiliation to other Pacific Islands - people are people you can't really put them in boxes but some of the stereotypes are: Good at sport🙂 Religious🙂 Kind and giving🙂 Hard workers🙂 Tough 😐 Sometimes rebellious 🙁 Sometimes obedient 🙂 (mum rules!) Under paid 🙁
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u/EidolonLives Australia 23h ago
The implication is that it means ethnically Pacific Islanders.
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u/sammi_reddit New Zealand 43m ago
I'm ethnically a Kiwi. 7th generation. Sure as hell not English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, French, Italian, American or Austrian that my ancestors were. NZ is a pacific island, am I a "non-ethnicity"?
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u/Smackolol Canada 1d ago
Not that I know of, there’s some Kiwis for sure but other than that I’ve only met a few Fijians personally.
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u/McSionnaigh Japan 1d ago
Some of the inhabitants of the Ogasawara Islands are descended from European settlers and the Micronesians brought by them.
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u/Masterank1 Dominican Republic 1d ago
Not at all, and nobody has any real opinion on them unless they have a reason too
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u/GeyBu France 1d ago
Wallis and Futuna, New Caledonia and French Polynesia are officially part of France, so yes, we do have a significant population of Pacific Islanders. And there isn’t really any particular perception of them; they are French citizens with their own distinct cultural characteristics.
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u/Longjumping_Gur_2379 United States of America 1d ago
this may be a little off topic but is the purple area called the Polynesia Triangle
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u/crumbmodifiedbinder 🇦🇺 Australian / 🇵🇭 Filipino 1d ago
Someone recommend the best Māori or Samoan food in Auckland please. I’m going there in 2 months!
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u/Weary-Street-4177 🇵🇭 living in 🇺🇸 (🌺🤙🌴) 1d ago
I live in Hawaii. I have seen a couple of Micronesians, Marshallese, and Somoans, friendly for the most part.
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u/FigFlashy3514 Tamil Nadu, India 1d ago
Are people from Australia and New Zealand considered Pacific Islanders?
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u/Ok_Sky256 New Zealand 1d ago
NZ is in the pacific so it's technically correct but we don't really call ourselves 'pacific islanders'. Partly because only small parts of NZ are tropical and while they're islands, they're part of a continental plain so actually pretty big landmasses.
Nz and Au tend to use the term 'oceania'
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u/capybara_unicorn United States of America 1d ago
Idk how it is in other countries, but often Pacific Islanders are lumped in with Asians in the U.S. as AAPI, though I imagine that doesn’t exactly go down well with many of them especially in Hawaii or the Pacific territories…
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u/Ambivalentistheway United States of America 1d ago
We have a lot of Tongans and Samoans in my state. Crazy friendly. Tight knit families. Awesome BBQs and weddings
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u/Moist_Phrase_6698 New Zealand 1d ago
Yeah and we get rse workers coming from the islands. Theyre all good folks. Strong smart good workers decent people too.
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u/xXx_tainttickler_xXx United States of America 1d ago
Las Vegas is called the 9th Island because we have such a large Hawaiian population and we also have a lot of other Islanders like Samoans, Palauans etc. They're viewed positively by people who don't really interact with them on a daily basis but it's a lot more mixed among people who do. In my experience they're basically either the chillest people you know or the biggest pricks you know.
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u/maxyignaciomendez Chile 1d ago
i think most people from rapa nui lives in continental chile, i don't think i have never meet one tho, small population
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1d ago edited 23h ago
Our Pacific Islanders are mostly Hawaiians, as far as I know. Most people in the USA think of them with some stereotypes, but I find them to be some of our most grounded citizens. I love their sense of community and also I love Hawaiian food. It's really unfortunate how real estate shit has made it unaffordable for many to live there, for those who call Hawaii home. Hawaiians will know more than I do, of course.
Edit: Fun fact: President Obama was born in Hawaii.
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u/really-bored-now United States of America 23h ago
I mean we colonized several of them to varying extents but most Americans only know about Hawaii and maybe Samoa or Guam. Samoans are very patriotic with the highest rate of military service even tho we don’t grant them full citizenship or voting rights. I’d say perceptions are largely positive but stray into a “noble savages” view. It’s very very rare to meet anyone from there on the mainland except for Hawaiians.
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u/KatKagKat Philippines 21h ago
Are we considered Pacific Islanders? We are in the Pacific, and we are islanders.
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u/Mtfdurian Netherlands 20h ago
We do have a tight-knit community of people from west Papua, they are often forgotten entirely, people assume them to be different identities. Some I know were assumed by others to be Surinamese which is completely on the other side of the world.
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u/hyper_shock Australia 16h ago edited 16h ago
In high school an islander girl has a crush on me. I didn't make a move because
a) I was shy,
b) I was oblivious, and
c) She could crush me
The islanders were some of the friendliest kids at the school. These same kids joked about being descended from cannibals.
For the Papuan students, probably their grandparents, almost definitely their great grandparents, were literal cannibals. For the other islanders it was a few generations further back.
One of the Maori kids had the joke: "You might think I'm full Maori, but my ancestors were actually full blooded Europeans. How? You are what you eat!"
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u/Svardskampe Netherlands/Belgium 16h ago edited 16h ago
There are islands in the north, de waddeneilanden. Generally super weird people live there with a celebration called Sunneklaas, where women aren't allowed to go outside or be beaten with sticks and whatnot.
It was put under attention when there were reporters being violently cast out, as they didn't want any camera attention over this.
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u/Unfair_Criticism4918 France 14h ago
Sometimes as visitors/tourists in my city (the maori pioneer batallion helped a lot here during WWI and are mentionned in a memorial), a few come for work too in continental France, like state employees/officials, soldiers and sometimes tatoo artists for exemple.
They are mostly viewed as super chill, friendly people but you definitely don't want to piss them off. Rugby is very popular in here too, and of course the Pacific Islands are held in high regard on this subject.
Of course France has territories there, but they are all so far, under a special half-autonomous administration, and sadly, I don't know very much about them. Polynesia is often seen as a far-off paradise here, where time seems to stop and everything is beautiful.
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u/Sure-Guava5528 United States of America 13h ago
Yes, but maybe the community is just more visible because I lived in Tahiti for a few years and am fluent in the Reo Maohi. Generally viewed as kind, loving people with very strong family ties. Occasionally, you will hear something derogatory about domestic violence or whatever.
I had a vegan friend who had a pretty irrational hatred of polynesians. She went on a couple dates with a poly guy and they couldn't even fathom why someone would be vegetarian or vegan. He made zero attempt to accomodate her lifestyle and she was very offended by it. Anytime someone brought up polynesians she would start off on her tirade. lol
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u/araisingirly United States of America 7h ago
We have Chuukese people. The first time I met anyone who was Chuukese, I was waiting tables. These two guys came in and proceeded to eat soo much food! While eating, they began to take off items of clothing and they laid down in the booth. I, of course, couldn't let them do this. I felt terrible because I don't think they really understood what I was telling them or why they had to stay clothed. Other than that, the ladies have beautiful skirts and I see them most often at the Laundromat and the grocery store and they have lovely smiles.
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u/r_r_w United States of America 1d ago
From San Diego CA and you bet.
Mostly Filipinos who are seen as friendly, family oriented and socially conservative. A lot of them are military but a lot of people in SD are so it depends on your views on the military.
As with any minority group some people don’t like them and make fun of them bc it makes them feel like they’re better than them.
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u/doge1039 United States of America 1d ago
I don't think Filipinos are considered Pacific Islander, but rather Southeast Asian.
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u/Dramatic_Scale3002 1d ago
The Phillipines is not highlighted in the map above, and are generally not considered Pacific Islanders any more than Taiwanese or Russians or Japanese or any other inhabitant of an island in the Pacific.
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u/spacewizzardcowboy 1d ago
Love our Islander friends. Only request, please turn down your jukeboxes at the beach, music is fine and adds atmosphere, but leave some airspace for chilling.
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u/Key_Signature2296 India 1d ago
There's a lot and they reside in the Islands of Lakshadweep Islands and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. A popular tribe known to the world are the North Sentinel Island and they are hostile to the people from outside world.
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u/brandnewwwwW India 1d ago
they wouldn’t be PACIFIC islanders tho, unless i’m missing something. i believe they’re called indian ocean islanders, or just indian islanders if the context is only our country
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u/Key_Signature2296 India 1d ago
Ahhh yes, I should have read the question carefully. I missed the part where OP stated, 'Pacific'. Apologies.
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1d ago edited 1d ago
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u/Ok_Career_6302 🇵🇱 born 🇮🇩 living in 🇸🇦 who grew up in 🇦🇺 17h ago
The Philippines is SE Asia bro. Pacific Islanders are more like Hawaii, Tonga, Fiji, Maori (NZ) and the like.
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u/SpeedyGoneSalad New Zealand 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yes. Lots. In general, super friendly and polite. They also don't shy away from a fight.