‘‘It’s a huge thing for me,’’ Mr Ahmed said.
‘‘This is giving us our first home,’’ he said of the security that citizenship brought with it.
Mr Ahmed, who is a Dunedin hotel night manager, grew up in Pakistan, where he married his Fijian-born wife, Raahila Jamil, in 2005.
His wife had been working in New Zealand, where he shifted seven years ago, initially working at Lake Tekapo before moving to Dunedin five years ago.
Their older son, Zak Jamil (13), was born in New Zealand and their younger son, Farhaad Jamil (10), was born in Vanuatu while Mr Ahmed was working there for five years.
New Zealand and Dunedin were ‘‘good for a family’’, he said yesterday.
Mr Ahmed had enjoyed the friendly support he had gained from other Dunedin residents and appreciated the city’s compact layout, attractive old buildings and beaches.
Mrs Jamil said Dunedin was ‘‘easy for children, and affordable’’, and she had found the people positive and supportive.
It was now a ‘‘relief’’ to have a secure home base where the family could live together.
The four family members were among 33 people who gained New Zealand citizenship in a ceremony led by Dunedin Mayor Aaron Hawkins at the Dunedin Municipal Chambers yesterday.
Other new citizens.— Henok Semere Abraha (Eritrea); Tany Abraham (India); Alexandra Emily Bousie (Germany); Keara Eileen Brownlie (Britain, Canada, Ireland); Adrienne Patricia Buckingham (Canada); Luiz Christofoletti Filho (Brazil); Jared Michael Cummings (America); Zoe McCarrick Cummings (Australia, Ireland, America), Lily Keane Cummings (Australia, America), Aurie Keane Cummings (Australia/America); Monique Chantal Elizabeth Ellleboode (America); Natasha Maria Ghelita (Indonesia); Isabelle Hui San Kuan (Malaysia); Xiaomin Lu (China); Liberty Rose Murton (Britain); Carol Gillian Pike (Britain); Giles Edward Pike (Britain); Waldir Rodrigues De Souza Junior (Brazil); Fernanda Mello Ribeiro De Souza (Brazil); Gayani Geethika Rupasinghe (Sri Lanka); Harpreet Singh (India); Nitin Sukumaran (India); May Taha (Syria), Yasmin Saleem, Ahmed Ismail Saleem, Nadeen Saleem, Dareen Saleem (all Syria); Simonne Emma Wood (Britain/Canada); Huey Jen Yap (Malaysia).
