Two Years On And It’s Still Crap
Continuing in our series of Migrant Stories: first hand accounts of migrant life in New Zealand, taken from locations around the net. It is a fairly common story telling of how skilled migrants are made to feel that their skills are inadequate in New Zealand and of how ‘the Lifestyle’ didn’t deliver.
This post is taken from a British migrant emigration forum.
2 Years on and it’s still crap
“Can’t afford it.
Don’t like it.
Kids hate it.
both work full time just to pay bills.
Cant afford price to get out of here.
nuff said….The wife hates it. as you know the system over here sucks, she feels like she cant do her job in the hospital and is just left to clean up after the lmc’s. She is looked down on by the maori folk even she is trying to help deliver a baby she is still looked on as a 3rd class citizen. The wage for a rm is pants, and if she were to go lmc she would be putting her life on call 24/7… which wouldnt work as we have two kids.
I do days she does nights, we meet in a carpark in the mornings where the kids get out of my car and into hers she then takes them to school then bed. I come home she gets up and goes to work….
I know there are people in this world worse off than us but all we want is a little bit of a life…”
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New Zealand crime news
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I agree not a place to make money, wages shite and more tax and indirect tax than anywhere i have been. New Zealand is a beautiful place to visit and thats all, i lived there 8 years in Taupo, all the dick heads go on about is the life style, what bloody life style, shame you cant enjoy it as you are to busy working to keep your head above water
We’ve heard many accounts of the ‘lifestyle’ failing to deliver. Invariably it turns out to be longer working hours, less job satisfaction and a hand to mouth, penny pinching existence for immigrants from many different cultures.
http://emigratetonewzealand.wordpress.com/2010/03/24/hard-slog-for-chinese-coming-to-new-zealand/
And it’s interesting to see where migrants find success after NZ fails them e.g.
http://emigratetonewzealand.wordpress.com/migrant-stories/chapter-2/refuge-from-nz-found-in-a-muslim-country/
As you say, a great place for a holiday (if you survive the adventure sports)
Good comment Eric
It seems to me that many people who choose to move countries have a reason for doing so.
Many who return home find that they are still having to face the same difficulties that they sought to escape in the first place. This makes them doubly dissatisfied,and even more difficult to live with at work and at home.
Nobody except you can make the decision to change countries.
There are many ex pat Brits who have made the change and would not wish to go back to the elbow nudging shin barking underground,or the mired other problems which exist in Britain.
Nowhere is perfect.
If you do tour homework and look at the OECD figures you will find that many of the perceptions quoted here by those who seek to escape their past are not born out by the reality of the figures.
If you are unhappy here then it is best for both countries that yup return.
Nobody is holding you against your will.
There is always a period of adjustment as you find that kiwis do in fact have a different culture.
It is only right that you may not like aspects of it. If youdind that it does not fit with your idea of an acceptable culture then you have the right and duty to leave,just as many before you have chosen to leave England and live here.
It’s your choice!
Thank you for your comments John.
To what factors do you attribute the high numbers of New Zealanders leaving New Zealand for destinations such as Australia, USA and the UK every year? About a quarter of the country’s nationals live abroad. Its not just immigrants that have a problem with New Zealand.
What do you say about New Zealand being actively mis-marketed to migrants, many of whom arrive to find that they can’t find work in their “skills shortage” areas of employment; or that their overseas experience and qualifications aren’t recognised by New Zealand employers, despite having met immigration and NZQA prerequisites.
Reasons why people cannot leave:
They cannot sell their homes for what they paid for them
They do not have the money to move – low wages in NZ and may have used up any savings trying to get by, because they could not find jobs
They are caught in a legal battle, which may take a long time to resolve
They have children or spouses there who do not want to leave
They burned their bridges in some other way like moved their pension fund over from the UK and then did not fare well and cannot move it back
Developed health problems
and so on.
This country markets itself as pure, family-friendly and desirous of migrant skills.
but it is not pure
http://www.chapmantripp.com/publications/Pages/Greenwashing-the-latest-deadly-sin.aspx
http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/3815892/Pollution-choking-New-Zealand-rivers
it is not family friendly – second worst in world for bullying due to their bystander policy
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/761094
http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/mp/8687361/nz-child-mortality-rate-staggering-un/
and the few jobs there are they’d rather not give to migrants
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/2287489/Skilled-Kiwis-should-get-jobs-Key
http://nzconservative.wordpress.com/2009/05/24/immigrants-cant-find-jobs-so-increase-immigration/
John should shut his bluddy big gob. Until only a few years ago, negative information about New Zealand was not even available on the web, and so many came thinking it was some utopia. God bless the websites that are putting it out there!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10732654
Who won’t be surprised to learn this?
“Almost two-thirds (63 per cent) of the children had been the victims of physical violence at some stage in their lives, and 53 per cent had suffered it in the year of the survey, compared with overseas rates of 50 per cent in the US and Italy and 33 per cent in Britain”.
When we came to New Zealand, we were shocked to see people fighting so openly on the street. We were not here long before my children witnessed a blood-covered man on the bonnet and windshield of a vehicle that was careening down High St of a dingy Far North small city (high street was more than an accurate description, too!) you couldn’t go anywhere without smelling burning skunk!. We would see people by the side of the road sorting out their differences as we drove by outside the city.
Despite how smug they are about their lack of military involvement in world affairs, it is not a peaceable society. It is in such amazing juxtaposition to the beautiful scenery, like a meth-addicted biker chick wearing a bridesmaid’s gown.
The 2011 New Zealand Workplace Violence Survey aimed to find out the incidence and nature of workplace violence and identify sectors affected.
Study co-author Dr Bevan Catley, of the Healthy Work Group in the School of Management, said the incidence rate for all violence cases, of 32.3 per 1000 employees, was very high compared to rates reported by researchers in North America and Europe.
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/violence-in-more-than-half-nz-workplaces-survey-4232263
Seriously….. its a small country, what more could you possibly expect with a population of 3 million, a job that pays 200-300k easy and luxury? hahah!! Of course you are going to hear on the news stories of gangs, domestic violence… geee all someone has to do is fart and it is reported in the local newspaper. In the UK a lot of those stories like that dont even make it in the newspaper because it happens so frequently.
Janet, its 4,435,900, not 3 million and a living wage wouldn’t be too much of an ask would it? Smaller countries than NZ seem to manage ok.
Did you know that there are restrictions placed on New Zealand’s media with regards to reporting crime? its remarkable and a credit to some journalists that anything gets published, but we’ve yet to see a fart story thank goodness.
The police in the town that I live in have stopped giving crime ststs to the paper. The rational was that if you didn’t hear about it, you’d feel safer. Now that is some messed up logic.
carpentaro, are you able to say what town that is, Gisborne perhaps?
http://emigratetonewzealand.wordpress.com/2010/07/25/no-crime-in-gisborne-its-offical/
We suspect there may also be some other reasons for why crime stories are withheld from the press:
1. To prevent copycatting.
2. To justify spending less on law enforcement. The public doesn’t demand a service if it believes it doesn’t need it.
I can neither confirm, nor deny that the town is Gisborne.
It’s a small place, don’t want to be too specific. The walls have eyes.
it does make the news – when it’s one of a thousand justifications for the high DV rate
http://100gf.wordpress.com/2011/10/30/new-zealand-man-arrested-for-assault-after-farting-being-sprayed-with-air-freshener/
Been here 10 years(from UK).We have a great lifestyle skiing 30 days or in the winter and mountain bike most of the year.Kids are happy at work and uni.Didn’t move here for the culture/history(or lack thereof) so that’s not a problem.Wouldn’t consider living back in the UK or even going to Oz even after the last 18 months here in Christchurch.
Still I regard us as being lucky and there is a problem with NZ having a low wage,long hour economy set against expensive housing and a cost of living that has far outstripped pay rises in the last few years.Of course NZ isnt clean,green or 100%pure but it’s my home and I love it.
you need to remove that silver spoon from your mouth, you are not making any sense (no money to live, but plenty to waste on overpriced ski passes?)
GrossDomesticProduct per capita (person) in NZ is just over 50% of that what a person in e.g. Switzerland generates for the economy. But costs for living and especially for the wooden -often rotten- tents with single glass windows and poor installation what they call houses are the same or even higher.
Funny to me also when you read in the NZ-Immigration Skilled Worker section “was your work experience gained in a comparable labor market” which includes most of the EU countries and Switzerland I was close to answering NO because if asking the same question immigrants from NZ in Switzerland or Germany I would not include NZ as a comparable labor market. Life here is OK if you are healthy and not likely to become ill, if you are financially independent and if you still can go “home” on short notice. Otherwise you better stay away.