It's easy to see how picture-perfect New Zealand, with the bluest of skies, abundant sunshine, affluence and relatively friendly immigration policies, inspires dreams of an idyllic life for migrants from far away.
Add a good, welcoming education system, a vast safety net of social welfare and benefits and a decent law and order situation, and one begins to understand why the number of migrants from Asian countries has risen dramatically in the past 10 years.
The Asian population, according to last year's census, grew by almost 50 per cent between 2001 and 2006. Auckland, New Zealand's most populous city with about 1 million residents, saw its Asian community grow from 160,000 in 2001 to 250,000 people last year.
But behind the Chinese takeaway joints, karaoke bars, Indian restaurants and corner shops is an occasionally sinister force - a dream of a better life so strong that it permits exploitation and abuse by those with the key to that life: permanent residency.
The recent case of a doe-eyed three-year-old girl nicknamed Pumpkin has drawn international attention to the tragic story of one such immigrant. Pumpkin - whose real name is Qian Xun Xue - was found on September 15 at a railway station in Melbourne, abandoned by her father Xue Naiyin, who flew one-way to Los Angeles after leaving her.
It began as a mind-boggling story of abandonment and intercontinental flight. Then developed the mystery over the whereabouts of the girl's mother, Anan Liu. Fears deepened for her safety as it emerged her husband had a history of violence - Liu had spent time in a women's refuge and had a protection order against him.
