The council hosted a citizenship ceremony as a part of its Welcoming Week last Friday. The people came from all over, from Sweden to England, and were given their citizenship as well as a ceremonial tree and a badge.
Mayor Ben Bell said it was a special part of his job to oversee the ceremony.
"It’s always fantastic welcoming people into the district.
"It’s a very special part of my role being able to welcome them in and hand them their citizenship, a really special occasion."
Mr Bell said Gore did not have the multicultural population of other places in New Zealand, and it was important to get people in to ensure continued growth.
"Our diversity is low compared to other parts of the country, but it’s getting better.
"The reality is we’re not replacing [population] as fast as we would like to in Southland so people coming into the region is how we’ll grow over time."
Nursing student Donna Dono was one of the people awarded citizenship, along with the rest of her family.
They had emigrated from the Philippines 12 years ago, and Gore quickly became their home, Ms Dono said.
"We moved around a lot, but Gore is where we always returned to."
Ms Dono said the process was difficult.
"It was quite long. We had to wait for about a year to get approved.
"It feels really great. No more worrying."
Petrus and Roxanne van Zyl moved from South Africa to New Zealand seven years ago.
They moved to Gore last year after Mr van Zyl got a job supervising the Kaiwera Downs wind farm.
Mrs van Zyl said she took to Gore almost immediately.
"It’s like the type of town that I grew up in. It was small, under the mountains, snow and fishing. It feels like home."
Mr van Zyl said Gore appealed well to their interests.
"It’s been good to us. It’s very us, we’re very outdoorsy people, love fishing and the outdoors. We feel like we fit right in."
Mr van Zyl said he found the community to be welcoming and friendly.
"You’ll meet someone, you’ll have a yarn, have a chat about his mate, and you’ll go ‘hey, he’s one of my mates as well’.
"The community down here is great. That’s one thing for me personally, we really enjoy the community here."
