Migrant Tales Redux: Making Ends Meet

This article was originally published on 15 Jan 2010. This is one of our original Migrant Tales. Has much changed since then?
Shortly after it was published the source material was taken down from the emigration site where it was originally published.
Continuing our series of Migrant Stories. This well written post was published on an on-line immigration forum. It’s a not unusual example of how many skilled migrants from Western countries (in this case Britain) find life in New Zealand’s low wage/high house price economy a struggle, despite their very best efforts they cannot find a way to make ends meet.

“Below Rock Bottom
I always thought reaching “rock bottom” was the lowest point. Not so. I know this as I am currently sitting in the place that is below the rock. And its not pleasant.

Contradictory as it may sound, I love New Zealand although it has proved to be big money sucking leach. I scrimp, I juggle, I do all the cost-cutting things I can to try and make ends meet and I usually try and keep a fairly positive outlook, count my blessings, tell myself it can only get better and am grateful for what we do have. But today Positive has taken a well earned vacation and has left Reality and Hardship for me to babysit. They are both a real pain, hard work during the day, refuse to sleep at night and, as it turns out, they cry a lot. They play mean games and are generally not nice to be around.

Today Reality and Hardship decided we should play the money game. They won and as a result I’m over my overdraft limit and I’ve nothing to buy food with. The kids are on school holidays and I’ve no money for petrol to take them anywhere, no money to even get stuff for a basic picnic so’s we could just walk or bike somewhere and the pantry is looking fairly bare. I wish Positive was here – she would say, well look on the bright side – at least you can give the shelves a good clean now they’re empty, eh?

I’ve just come off the phone to the pension company. My last chance saloon. Apparently it’s where Hardship hangs out a lot. They can send me a form so I can claim Hardship resides with me and possibly release some of my money – for a 55% penalty (not having 5 tax years clear of UK).

Not the best start to the new year. I thought after having a diabolical 2009 things could only get better. However, as I type I’m nursing Hope who is on her deathbed and I’ve had no word from Positive to say when she might be returning.”

Today’s posts – click here

6 thoughts on “Migrant Tales Redux: Making Ends Meet”

  2. Sorry, had not read comments and was not aware that someone else had commented on this previous!

  3. Hi:
    been exploring your blog today, your sentence above that goes something like “Continuing our series of Migrant Stories,this well written post was published on an online immigration support forum” contains a link to BritishExpat leads to a post that is no longer there.

    Thank you, writer of this blog, for your hard work in so timely capturing, saving and reprinting here all these posts that seem to have been taken down from other places. This is a high value information service, truly. Commenters who visit and are blown away by “negativity” should understand that this site is a valuable repository, like a museum would be, of useful information that searchers perusing the net can no longer find elsewhere. Because they cannot see these posts in other places, that is, because they have been cleaned off, cleaned up, shoved into inaccessible archives, taken down by posters who may have been threatened or scared away, there is a void. And a false impression is being created by their absence. “He who controls the past controls the future, and he who controls the present controls the past”. This is the Museum of MiniPure. 🙂

  4. 404 on the link you give above:
    http://britishexpat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=649285

    Thankfully the text has been preserved here.

    You may find that as you link to the downside of NZ, the links are mysteriously…”taken down”! Ha ha. So do keep a few steps ahead! I applaud you!

    And here’s another thread talking about making ends meet:
    http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=639454
    Hurry and read it before they take it down too! Ha ha.

    COST OF LIVING in NEW ZEALAND is a REAL problem. We are not talking about having extras like you are accustomed to back home. We are talking about food, utilities, meds, taxes, the occasional trip back home to see your relatives. Budgeting for purchase of hair pins because they aren’t on the NEED LIST. NZ IMMIGRATION DOES NOT WANT YOU TO KNOW THIS. THEY WANT YOU TO KEEP INJECTING CASH INTO THEIR ECONOMY BECAUSE THEY CANNOT GENERATE THE MONEY THEY NEED TO KEEP THEIR FALSE UTOPIA AFLOAT.

    For readers:
    Check out Expatexposed.com “My Story” for many more migrant stories. You may be one of the happy ones – and you may on the contrary be one of the less fortunate. There are quite a few of us out on the Net now angered at the fake paradise public relations campaign. It is not actually that wonderful here at all. You have to have a great deal of money and an ongoing good income source to insulate yourself from the problems of this small remote nation.

    • “taken down”? has it? thanks for that, we’ll have to quicken up our step.

      The cost of living/low wages is probably why many migrants ultimately leave New Zealand, despite how much they like living there. It’s also why half a million Kiwis live in Australia and why most of them will never return.

      Very good point you made about migrants injecting cash into the economy.

      Did you know the migrant population in NZ is 927,00 and they had a positive net fiscal impact of $3,288 million in the year to 30 June 2006? The net fiscal impact per head was $2,680 for recent migrants, $3,470 for intermediate migrants and $4,280 for earlier migrants. The net fiscal impact for the New Zealand-born population was $915 per head.

      Long term migrants are worth 4.5 times as much as a NZ born person. Even a new migrant is worth almost 3 Kiwis.

      Migrants are very good for business ‘since ages ago’…or at least 1840.

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