The term makes no distinction concerning religion and encompasses both Catholic and Protestant (including Anglo-Irish) immigrants and their descendants; nonetheless, the chief criterion of distinction between Irish immigrants, especially those who arrived in the nineteenth century, is religion.
[5] Job opportunities for Irish-born New Zealanders were limited as a result of anti-Irish bias.
[citation needed] Some of the first Irish came with the Royal New Zealand Fencibles who were British army veterans given land for service.
A Dublin University Magazine described New Zealand as 'the most recent, remotest, and least civilised of our colonies'; the voyage cost over four times that of crossing the Atlantic to America.
[8] To make New Zealand more attractive as a place of settlement for migrants, "fudging" of statistics occurred emphasising homogeneity (using the phrase '98.5 percent British').
[10] There are some place names in New Zealand with connections to Ireland or Irish people, including: