Issue 1, June 15, 2016

Kia Ora!

Welcome to our inaugural issue of The Migrant Times.

After months of planning, we at the Canterbury Migrants Centre - yes, that's our new name - are pleased to announce the launch of our fortnightly newspaper The Migrant Times (TMT). This is a 16-page edition to be published every alternate Wednesday. In a sense, TMT is the revamped version of our monthly newsletter Migrants Down Under. But it will also be much, much more.

Our decades of work with the migrant communities - and there are over 160 different ethnic communities living in Canterbury now - have all pointed towards one thing.

With all the good intentions of the average Kiwis, and efforts put in by the government machinery, migrants in Canterbury still feel "alienated", "left out", or "voiceless". What aids such a feeling – and this is a general consensus - is that the migrant issues, news, views, struggles, successes, and celebrations [in a nutshell, anything related to the migrant communities] doesn't find adequate representation in the public discourse of the region.

The Migrant Times is an effort to change these prevailing state of affairs. As TMT's tag line pointedly says, A voice for all, we hope that by bringing the migrant side of things in the mainstream of Canterbury, the society at large will develop deeper understanding and appreciation of each other's culture.

Our team is very excited to embark on this journey of building bridges between communities in Canterbury, and will need all your support, appreciation, and critique along the way.

Gaurav