Continuing in our popular Migrant Tales series, first hand accounts of the migrant experience of New Zealand.

Today’s tale was written by Mr-Alex, a frequent contributor to this blog. He and his family originate from Hong Kong and have suffered the effects of discrimination and racism ever since moving to New Zealand.

My mum and father are second generation Hong Kong people and myself third generation people moved to New Zealand in early 1994 to start a new life, when my dad and my arrived in Auckland after six months he decided to go back to Hong Kong when there were two railways one of them known as the Kowloon Canton Railway to get his job back as a engineer in Fo Tan, at that time my mum had to take care of me because I was a child in 1994. By 1998 when the New Zealand Government got word that my dad was working in Kowloon Canton Railway, they made sure they taxed him because he was a permanent resident even though he was living in Hong Kong.Basically it caused my dad to be very stressed and he even tried to get a Hong Kong lawyer to tell the NZ Government that he shouldn’t be paying income tax to NZ if he was overseas.

By the end of 1999 my dad left the KCR and went to work in Chek Lap Kok Airport as a technician and still IRD Agents from the New Zealand Government telling him to pay the income tax and by 2004 he moved back to New Zealand and worked for Tranz Rail as a Technician at Hutt Workshops in Woburn, he was stressed and he was also at times emotionally mad and also threw his anger at myself and my mum over the phone because he earned a third less than working in the KCR in Hong Kong and after the tax and rent and repair fees for his car, he would have not much left to eat or live on and also he had to save the $ to travel up to Auckland because it was where me and my mum were living.

By 2006 my mum got a job at Pak N Save Sylvia Park when it first opened,my mum was basically working on Monday to Friday nights until 12.00am when it closed, she was basically trying to earn that $ so she could buy the food, clothes and also repair her own car and maintain her home in Auckland and also by 2006 I left school due to bullying and decided to become mechanic and found it was not my cup of tea and I was on the Unemployment Benefit trying to look for work and struggled, most employers would either say to me that I did not suit them or would cite my culture as a concern

By 2009 me and my mum moved down to Wellington where my dad live and worked and still I had difficulty to get a job because there were no jobs, same when I lived in Auckland and my mum got a part-time job in Mitre 10 but still not enough to survive on after the tax and rates. By 2013 I am still in the same position no job but working as a volunteer in the Salvation Army.By 2014 I hope I can get my Certs at Weltec to become a IT and by the time I am 29, I hope I can move to Japan for good and get myself a Japanese lady to date and get married as I had enough of NZ women

As for a Hong Kong person who lived 19 years in New Zealand, I recommend people who want to move to New Zealand that moving to New Zealand is a big mistake, there are no jobs in New Zealand and also some of the people in New Zealand hate foreigners to the core and they do still hate people who have resided in NZ for 19 years,my mum would still get the blame at work that asians have taken a lot of NZ jobs, the racism in NZ is still alive and well folks as for myself I have set it as a priority to move to Japan in 3-7 years and get a job as a IT there too.

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• Migrant Tales – The UK Plumber’s Tale (e2nz.org)
• Migrant Tales – NZ Not The Land Of Promise For Me (e2nz.org)
• Migrant Tales – NZ Promised Land? (e2nz.org)
• Migrant Tales – British Cop in Northland: NZ’s “Crime Statistics a Work of Fiction” (e2nz.org)