Religion and Refugee Resettlement in New Zealand: Humanitarianism, Muslims, and the Secular State

This thesis examines the encounter between Muslim refugees and the New Zealand state. It argues that the New Zealand state engages with Muslim refugees through an inconsistent secularism. Although this secularism is widely assumed, it is commonly unarticulated. It is also neither legally grounded nor ideologically founded. Nevertheless, state secularism is apparent in actual practices and occasionally also rendered into explicit discourse. I argue that this secularism is politically potent, in part because it often remains implicit. I analyse these secular logics by exploring how different parts of the state engage with Muslim refugees, including in policy development, quota selection, and in the delivery of post-resettlement social services. In formulating my argument, I draw on policy documents and interviews with state and government-funded resettlement actors, as well as with Muslim refugees in New Zealand. At each step of the resettlement process, I show how resettlement actors perceive and frame Islam, including replacing religion by ethnicity, subsuming religion within concerns for social cohesion, critiquing religion as a disruption, and praising religion as a public good. I argue that the most active engagement with the religion of Muslim refugees is found at the greatest distance from the state. I show that this inconsistent secularism has important effects on Muslim refugees. The thesis makes an original contribution to the scholarship on religion and refugee resettlement, religion and the New Zealand state, and the political management of religious diversity.