Migrant Tale – New Zealand Citizenship May Be A Way Out

A NZ passport may be a route out

Continuing in our series of Migrant Tales – first hand accounts of the migrant experience of New Zealand, taken from locations around the net.

Today’s tale was first published on the forum at Expatexposed.com, a self help and support, not-for-profit forum, for people living in New Zealand.

It is the only immigration forum on the net to be free of vested interests and corporate sponsorship, and as such portrays a refreshingly realistic image of life in New Zealand for many emigrants.

"Our Story.
I’m so glad I found this website – you can begin to think you are imagining all the negativity. I just wish I had seen it before we moved to NZ.

We arrived in NZ in 2005. Settled firstly in West Auckland where we enjoyed living during the ‘honeymoon period’. Couldn’t quite believe that we had paid over $300k for little more than a wooden shed to live in….. Shocked but anyway…we then decided that we should chase the kiwi dream of a lifestyle block and moved to rural Otago. Mistake number one. Rural town, rural people, rural attitudes….

We then made our second mistake of renovating the house we bought thinking we would get the money back when we sold it. We didn’t, and ended up $30k worse off. Husband couldn’t find decent work so we ended up living off our savings. We moved again, closer to a ‘city’ (pfft!) to increase OH chance of work. Didn’t work. Moved again – now in Christchurch (we moved into our house 2 days after the Feb earthquake). Things going very slightly better now…

Things I miss:
Being able to have a conversation without that ‘delay’
Decent houses with central heating and double glazing, not ones thrown together with a bit of gib board and pink batts.
Walking over footpaths for miles with my dogs
History and culture (seen more in a pot of yoghurt…)
Affordable grocery shopping and decent fruit and veg markets and a range of things to choose from in the supermarket.
A good curry
Being able to watch TV without ‘look how fantastic NZ is’ being forced down my throat everywhere.
Having some savings.

We arrived full of how wonderful our new life was going to be. I am sick of having my decent salary (pre tax) being creamed off by the government to support the majority of this rural, undereducated nation. We don’t have holidays (no wonder the kiwis are such good campers), we can’t afford to go back and visit our family. I am gutted we made the decision to come. I now feel that we can’t return and leave my son behind (he is 22 and happy here living with his girlfriend). My daughter is 13 and I feel she has suffered due to the education system here –she has just started high school. Her peers in the UK seem way ahead. But still, they let anyone into University here so I’m sure she’ll be fine…

We are applying for citizenship so that at least we may be able to consider Australia in the future. I would love to go home, but I’m worried about reports of ‘ping pong poms’, people who get home and hate it, then spend the next few years trying to get back. Maybe I have my rose tinted specs on when I think of ‘home’."

You may also be interested in:

Jobs-driven migration to Oz at high of 53,000 (22/3/2012)- “The Kiwi exodus to Australia has hit a new high, with annual departures reaching 53,000 last month, Statistics New Zealand said yesterday.

New Zealand suffered a net loss of 39,100 people after departure numbers were partially offset by 13,900 arrivals, most of them returning citizens…The overall net loss of 4100 people in the year to February 29 is also the largest since the year ended August 31, 2001, when 4400 people left New Zealand.” read more

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