Further installments of Tales from Retardicon 6, supplied to E2NZ.org by guest authors
Business Migration to Retardicon 6 (AKA New Zealand)
“This blog has already chronicled in exhaustive detail the pitfalls of immigrating to New Zealand including the following:
• the challenging job market for migrants
• the xenophobia and racism towards migrants
• the utterly abysmal quality of housing
• high cost of living and low quality of goods and services
• poor education system
• rampant crime and the inability and/or unwillingness of the courts to punish criminals
• the propaganda machine created by the New Zealand government to lure credulous but well meaning migrants into relocating to New Zealand.
If you want to learn more about these things, then just look at the blog’s Migrant Tales.
The focus will be on the numberless dangers of migrating to New Zealand under one of the Business of Investor visas. The New Zealand government is exceptionally adept at constructing propaganda to deceive prospective migrants. Please visit http://www.newzealandnow.govt.nz/investing-in-nz for an example. Therefore, I will try to refute some of the lies and distortions.
First, it is important to know that Immigration New Zealand is not interested in you except to help milk money in fees. Furthermore, many of the investor or entrepreneur visas do not lead to permanent residence automatically. They only allow you to migrate to New Zealand and then you can apply for residence if the business is successful and you meet other requirements such as not having any medical issues. The Kiwi con artists in the government love to change the goalposts after the fact to swindle more money out of migrants.
One poignant illustrating involves a man from the UK who relocated to Northland and invested NZ $750,000 in a local garage that grew to employ seven people. Despite investing everything he had, having kids who were New Zealand residents, etc, the NZ government denied his residence visa because the man had a heart condition that could cause potential problems in the future. The man had declared this when he originally applied for the Business Visa that would allow him and his money to enter New Zealand to invest and which was not an issue at the time. The man obtained documentation from a doctor showing he was fine and he even offered to obtain his own health insurance or pay for any future problems he might have to avoid becoming a drain on the public health care system. Despite this, the New Zealand government has said no. This case has carried on for several years and the man once had to go to Australia and wait for the New Zealand government to make a decision after his previous visa expired. They allowed him to come back temporarily. Despite the prominent media attention from Campbell Live, the man’s case is now before Immigration Minister Judith Collins, an absolute buffoon. No country should treat someone that has created jobs in one of New Zealand’s most impoverished regions.”
E2NZ.org 
Avalon’s blog. “Why do people keep trying to rip us off? Part 1” (see “blogs we like” at right) (why are those people still encouraging immigration?) and http://www.expatexposed.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7889 and many others! Buyer beware.
New Zealand is, without a doubt, a country in which greed is one of the central values of the government.
This is a country in which 20% of the children live in poverty, but the government takes child maintenance from paying parents and does not pass it on to custodial parents if the custodial parent is on a benefit (the time when the money is needed the most). This money is supposed to help support the CHILD, not the parent, so why do the parent’s circumstances determine whether it is received? This set up means that HALF of all child maintenance paid goes to the government’s coffers (several hundred million dollars each year).
This is a country in which the government charges 15% tax on ALL consumer goods, including food. At least Britain’s VAT is graduated, with higher VAT on luxury goods, and lower VAT on essentials. With ridiculous food prices, largely because of GST, the government of New Zealand would rather see people die of malnutrition related diseases due to not being able to afford proper food than miss out on their cut.
This is a country in which the government charges 15% GST, on road taxes (among many other charges), effectively charging taxes, on taxes.
This is a country in which if you make money overseas, and have ANY links to New Zealand (irrespective of whether you even LIVE there), you will be expected to pay income tax as if you were a New Zealand resident. I remember one story on this site of a man living overseas who had to pay New Zealand tax on his income because he had a child he was supporting in New Zealand despite having no other links with the country whatsoever.
People in New Zealand are paying AT LEAST 35% in taxes (20% income tax plus 15% GST). For the vast majority the rate is closer to 45% (by the time road taxes and other miscellaneous taxes are taken into account).
For some people the rate of tax is even higher! If you think of child maintenance as a tax (half of it goes to the government remember), and you are a non-custodial parent your rate will go up by at least 20%, and if you have a student loan (not really a tax, but still money going to the government for a service they SHOULD be providing), your total will go up another 10%. So for many (all non-custodial parents with a student loan), the government is getting at least 75% of their income!
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g297518-i10608-k3939350-Recent_exodus_of_gringo_expats_living_in_Cotacachi-Cotacachi_Imbabura_Province.html A relative of mine is traveling to this place, and reading the trip advisor comments about unscrupulous people “channeling” naive people to a place not enough people know about reminded me of our unhappy migration to New Zealand and subsequent escape minus a couple limbs.
The medical requirements really grind my gears. They say it’s because they wouldn’t have enough to go around if sick migrants were allowed into the country. Seriously? What highly-developed Western nation on this PLANET doesn’t have enough medical care to go around? The EU and the US don’t give a crap about medical exams. They only care if you have some sort of highly-infectious, easily-communicable disease such as tuberculosis (neither place considers HIV highly-infectious, but NZ does!). Fine, that’s a public health issue. But they have appropriate medical infrastructure to cover pretty much anyone for anything without a problem. If NZ doesn’t have the medical infrastructure to cover its migrants, then they might want to have a long, hard look at their “socially-progressive” medical system and maybe bring it up to a first-world standard. (It’s not just NZ, though, Australia is equally as bad with the medicals…but at least they have a wonderful medical system.)
Then they say they can’t afford to treat migrants’ medical conditions. Um, migrants aren’t usually immediately eligible for public assistance, anyway, and furthermore: Most of us who are in our right minds know to cover ourselves with private insurance in the first place.
At the end of the day, taking on migrants is a lot like adopting a pet or a child: Pets and children get SICK. You can’t just throw them out after you’ve adopted them because their health changed. If you need migrants, then make sure you have the infrastructure to take care of them! Seriously. It’s such a basic, humane idea.
Oh, but if you’re Kim Dotcom? Don’t worry about that BMI requirement and god knows what else that man must have in terms of medical issues due to his absolutely morbid obesity. He’s got mooooneeeeey.