E2NZ: What's It REALLY Like To Live In New Zealand?

Friday, November 5, 2010

What’s it really like to live in New Zealand?

Welcome to our series of Migrant Tales – chapters of immigrant’s stories and tales about New Zealand that contain first hand accounts of the migrant experience gathered various places around the net and some that have been sent in by readers.

What better way to find out what it’s like to live in New Zealand but from the experiences of others, the more you read the more you’ll see themes, patterns and commonalities emerging, from these you’ll have a good feel about how you’re going to fit-in to the country.

Some of the recurrent themes we’re seeing are

Low salaries
Problems finding work
Xenophobia, racism, bigotry and discrimination
Expensive, poor quality accommodation
Problems with the education standards
Feeling that NZ is actively mis-sold to outsiders
Isolation, missing family, friends, old lifestyles etc.
Crime
High cost of living -especially food, “Rip off NZ” etc.
Lack of culture
Dangerous roads and drivers, drinking and driving, hoons
No future for kids
The ‘Kiwi way’, ‘WWINZ’ (won’t work in NZ) small mindedness, #8 wire mentallity, etc.

Use these tales as a starting off point for your own research as you endeavour to look behind the hype and discover what living in New Zealand is really like.

If you’ve already emigrated to New Zealand these tales may help you to realise that other people are having the same problems as you and you’re not alone in your experiences.

To read the stories look at the links under the tab “Migrant Tales.” on our Wordpress blog There are now 6 chapters to chose from, with over 60 tales.

Here is a small selection. There is also another section called “What Kiwis say about NZ“ that you may find useful: