501s: The Reluctant Returnees

They are people who didn’t want to come back to New Zealand, generally had family and lives in Australia that they wanted to continue. Some were hardened criminals, some were people who simply associated with the wrong people, but what they had in common was that they were reluctant returnees. How did they get to where they were, what happened on their return, and could NZ have done a better job of integrating them back into NZ society? This is the story of the 501s, in their own words.