Did we emigrate to New Zealand or Maoriland?
Today’s Dom Post talks about new signs being erected at the entrance to the Kapiti Coast region. It seems they will have “Macron” above the “a”, which makes it a long vowel rather than a short vowel. So it would be pronounced Car-Pity rather than Ka-Piti which is how most people say it.
The addition of the Macron is happening in other areas as well, and from what I can tell is designed to improve pronunciation and more accurately reflect the Maori language.
So where is the problem?
Well, i guess there will always be people who object to anyone not speaking English. I personally feel it is the one language everyone should know, even if it isn’t their first language, and yo would be at a disadvantage of you didn’t. But the crux of this particular issue is that a Mr Warriner believes Kapiti with a macron actually spells Cabbage.
Well, that I leave to the linguists!
What I find troubling though is this quote:
Last year Paraparaumu resident Martin Warriner forced the council to back down over its use of macrons in “Kapiti” in legal documents, including his personalised rates invoice.
Mr Warriner, an English immigrant, insisted he had emigrated to New Zealand, not to “Maoriland”.
Now yes, he like myself migrated to a place called New Zealand. How does that in anyway detract from the fact that New Zealand has two official languages, one of the being Te Reo Maori? We emigrated to a place that is Bi-Lingual, and has a history and culture that is sometimes different from the one we left behind. While I certainly do not (and never will) buy into the notion that only Maori in New Zealand have a “culture”, I refuse to buy into the same rubbish that says their culture has no meaning.
I am proud of my heritage and culture – why shouldnt any Maori be equally proud of theirs? Sure they have thier tricky spots, and less pleasant moments in history – but so do we all.
And language is a huge part of that. I do sometimes feel it goes to far – particularly here, where my understanding is that there was no written language until the European settlers arrived, so there may not be a “right spelling”. But honestly – this is really no different that being in Wales. We tried to ban Welsh as a language – but we grew up eventually and now Wales is covered in Bi-Lingual signs. I personally find that quite wonderful.
Seems the ombudsman gives a crap about some immigrants.
Filed under: Getting to New Zealand, NZIS & Immigration issues
While they may have done absolutely sod-all about how INZ treated our case, and basically let INZ walk all over them, they have just beaten INZ up over their treatment of a load of Pacific Islanders who were also let down. These were people who were “advised” by the now defunct “Pacific Division” set up my Mary Anne Thompson, and disbanded after issues of corruption were highlighted by the Attorney General.
13 people – who have been in New Zealand illegally -have now been granted residence subject to police and medical checks.
Now, it’s all very well doing this – its the right thing: INZ let people down and behaved appallingly. The division was badly run, and applicants were badly advised.
The Ombudsman ruled that the information the families were given during the 2005 meetings was confusing and misleading.
Um – but so are hundreds of other people applying to immigrate to New Zealand. INZ still continue to give misleading information , still treat some applicants like crap, and they still get away with it (as do licensed advisors). While I am glad the Ombudsman has at least done something for these people, I fail to see why they can’t be bothered to do it for the other applicants like us, who have suffered mistreatment at the hands of INZ. This is at the end of the day grossly unfair, and still does nothing to force INZ to ensure that the information they give to all applicants is correct, and hold them to account when it isn’t.
Especially when many of us, when faced with INZ misinformation – still do not overstay illegally.
Somedays I do get really fed up with staying on the right side of the law, and really can’t always see the bloody point.
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Can the Exchange rate actually get any worse?
Filed under: Economics, General Budgeting, Getting to New Zealand
Having lunch with mum the other day, she told me that she had been checking the exchange rate, looking to bring a bit more money over, and seen that it have actually gone below $2 to the £!
She was right. On the third of January this year, the interbank rate was a sickening $1.986 for every £1.
I actually had a look back to see when it last went that low, but unfortunately first I came across what it was like before it went into freefall.
In fact I had to go back to the earliest date allowed on the charts at HifX, and even going back as far as 1998, the rate for people moving money this was has never been so bad.
On the plus side (I guess) this is an absolutely great time for anyone with $NZ sitting around with nothing to do. You can convert it to £ or $US and wait for the cycle to come round again. Now there are people who claim that this might not happen – that actually $2:£1 might be the new “normal”, but always before these things have worked as a cycle. Oddly you get the same argument with house prices – we shouldn’t this time be expecting house prices to rise again, and we should all get used to lower house values. I’ve noticed these are generally the same people who poured scorned on others who were claiming that there wouldn’t be a downturn in the housing market – that this time would be different.
The thing is human behavior is what causes these cycles – and at some point house prices, interest rates and the exchange rate will start improving. The real problem is that there is no way to tell when that will happen.
Unfortunately this just means that right now it is going to be very hard for most people to emigrate if they are relying on fund from their home countries. I thought we were hard done by when we moved and were getting a paltry $2.50! You notice when it was nearly $4 to the £? Thats when there was a huge spike in immigration to New Zealand – whereas at the moment, immigration is pretty low.
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Expat Kiwis in Australia are having problems.
It really isn’t just Brits emigrating to New Zealand that struggle to make ends meet sometimes. Kiwi’s crossing the Tasman (which for them is pretty much like Europeans being able to live throughout Europe) are finding that the grass is not always greener. Personally having lived in NZ for a while now, I can’t say I really see the draw of moving to Aussie, but hey.
One of the issues that some are finding is that they can’t get benefits in their country. What shocks me is that they thought they would be allowed to. Especially given the stink the mere thought of immigrants to New Zealand bludging benefits causes here. But it seems having gone in search of better wages and living conditions, and not finding the work needed to get it – some Kiwis are resorting to begging.
[Sallie Army] says they seem to be getting a misleading message about opportunities in Australia.
“They come with this understanding from somewhere that it’s easy to get cheap rental accommodation and employment,” he said.
“When they get here they find that that’s definitely not the case and we’ve had most of that 40 turn up at our centre in really difficult circumstances.”
A spokesman for the Department of Immigration said as long as the New Zealand citizens were not in Australia illegally, the department had no stance on the issue
Very helpful of the Immigration Dept there I think.
I also imagine there is probably a time after which you would be eligible for benefits – much as in New Zealand it depends on the type of visa, and length of time in the country.
I think the lesson here if the is one is that emigrating doesn’t always improve your life, and in these financial times, it doesn’t really pay to emigrate to a new country without a job, income and home in place.
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Are migrants in New Zealand really less happy?
Filed under: Life in New Zealand, NZIS & Immigration issues
This is a bit late really – but the results of the latest section of the Longtitudinal survey were released over a week ago. This corresponds to the last of the 3 surveys we were asked to complete – though I have been asked if i would mind being included in a follow-up survey, so there may in fact be more to come.
The highlights of this section are summed up as:
- 75.7 percent of migrants were employed at wave 3, compared with 72.1 percent at wave 1.
- 69.8 percent of employed migrants worked in a skilled job at wave 3, which is similar to the proportion at wave 1 (67.8 percent).
- 84.9 percent of employed migrants were either satisfied or very satisfied with their main job at wave 3, compared with 80.8 percent at wave 1.
- The real median hourly wages of employed migrants increased from $20.35 at wave 1 to $23.49 at wave 3.
- 70.6 percent of migrants had enough or more than enough money to meet their everyday needs at waves 1 and 3.
- 51.9 percent of migrants owned or partly owned their dwelling at wave 3, compared with 30.6 percent at wave 1.
- 49.3 percent of migrants lived in the Auckland region at the third wave, 31.5 percent lived in the rest of the North Island, and 19.3 percent lived in the South Island.
- More than nine out of ten migrants were either satisfied or very satisfied with life in New Zealand (93.8 percent at wave 1 and 92.3 percent at wave 3), although there was a decrease in the proportion of migrants who were very satisfied, down from 44.7 percent at wave 1 to 35.5 percent at wave 3.
- 76.0 percent of migrants felt either safe or very safe in New Zealand at wave 3, compared with 85.5 percent at wave 1.
- 78.4 percent of migrants had gained or intended to apply for New Zealand citizenship at wave 3.
- Compared with migrants from other regions, migrants from South Africa (93.3 percent), the Pacific (93.0 percent), and South Asia (86.5 percent) were more likely to have gained, or want to apply for, New Zealand citizenship
So, after 3 years here, fewer migrants were unemployed, more were employed in skilled work, more were satisfied with their jobs, salaries went up a massive (!) $3 an hour, there was no change in how many had enough money, more migrants had bought a house, there was a slight decrease in satisfaction at life in NZ but a bigger drop in how many were “very satisfied”, less migrants feel safe, and a lot of us want citizenship.
So all in all, not too bad really.
So why was the headline in the herald:
Immigrants feel less happy longer they live here.
All in all I personally feel that – my own experience of the survey notwithstanding – this actually shows an incredibly positive view for potential immigrants coming here. Anecdotally, I have seen that if people really aren’t going to settle here, they tend to leave reasonably quickly – often within a year. The people in the survey are the ones that settled and stayed – the number of people dropped each year – so the final figures are based on 5144 people. Only those who gained Permanent Residence were surveyed – this does not include work visas.
In fact really – the only number that disturbs me is the median income. But even then – you have to bear in mind that this would be dragged down by people like me, who don’t have an income. It is also a Median – not a Mean income. For some reason New Zealand is obsessed with using Median averages (the middle number in a set of numbers) rather than a Mean average (The total of all the numbers divided by the number of numbers). So this doesn’t take into account any very high incomes.
I also thing it’s probably a bit obvious that satisfaction with your new life would drop slightly. In fact if anything – what this survey shows is that after three years (of those who stayed) this is actually a remarkable country to move to. Think about it: after three years you have time to really settle. You live here. You work here. This is no longer quite so “new” and “exciting”. It’s your life.
The negative side of this is just how many people were not included in the survey: out of 7137 people surveyed at 6 months, only 5144 were left at 3 years. Thats 1993 people who dropped out (27%). Was that because they left and went back? Thats a huge proportion – and thats the number that in my view needs to be looked at.
I’m sure I can persuade hubby to look at all the tables and find out some really boring interesting facts and figures hidden in the detail.
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Immigration have now noticed the Christchurch Earthquake ;)
Filed under: Getting to New Zealand, NZIS & Immigration issues
As of Wednesday 8th Sept, there is now a notification in the INZ Website:
Immigration New Zealand’s Response to the Canterbury Earthquake
Wednesday, 8 September 2010
As part of its response to the Canterbury earthquake, Immigration New Zealand is working closely with other Government agencies to identify occupations where skill shortages may occur, for example, in the infrastructure or construction sectors to ensure that where an immigration response is required we are able to respond in a timely manner. For instance, this may result in changes being made to the Essential Skills in Demand Lists before our next review which is due for completion in mid 2011.
So, part way there – this is undoubtedly something that needs to happen, but also someone in Immigration also needs to think about people with Work Visas who may not have jobs to go to anymore. But the good news is – if you have skills that could be useful in re-building – keep a very close eye on the skills shortage lists.
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Me and the MX5: part3
Filed under: Cost of living, General Budgeting, Life in New Zealand
Well, we managed with one car for the first year, sharing it between myself and hubby, mum and dad. The fact that we managed that long without a car each and 3 spares was a minor miracle. Never before has my family coped with so little vehicular choice.
Being countryside dwellers for so long – we are into the habit of having to get around under our own steam. Theres kinda point relying on public transport when theres only one buss a week into town, and the train station is 10 miles away. Its no different here in NZ – public transport doesn’t start till you get to Carterton, and thats 15kms away.
But when mum and dad came back for there second 6 month stay they decided to go buy themselves a car. They went out one day – and came back with an old Jag XJ6 – basically a Tank with bigger comfier seats and a fuel consumption to match. Cheap to buy – small mortgage needed to fill up at the pump.
So we managed for a few years like this, then when they came to stay full time, my brother also bought a car, as he was now going to be living separately from the rest of us, and needed to be able to get about.
It was at this point that I made the comment over of coffee or two that if there were any more cars to be bought by this family – it was damn well going to be mine. Any deviation from this plan would be met with a major Grumpage alert.
At which point the Jag decided to die on us having failed its WoF and being about to cost considerably more to repair than was spent buying it. This was a few weeks ago. So I jumped and suggested that maybe now was the time for me to replace my MX5.
Obviously there are a lot of changes to our lives right now, with Hubby changing jobs and us moving into the city. So I figured that we could use a small car, and mum and dad could keep our big, fast, blacked out car with the big boot. Much more useful for the country life, and lets face it – a small car in the city is much easier to park.
Only problem was – how the hell do we buy a new car when we have little money and a credit card bill we cant pay in full?
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Me and the MX5: Part2
Filed under: Cost of living, Getting to New Zealand, Life in New Zealand
So we arrived in New Zealand, and oddly enough, as these things tend to pan out – I did not end up buying a new car straight away. Mostly this was because we started out living in Wellington City, right in the middle of the CBD and could walk almost everywhere. And as we were fainting with shock over the true cost of living, we decided that being sensible {shudder} we would leave the expense till we needed it.
I even on occasion succumbed to using Public Transport {Shudders}.
We made the most of it, there was a good bus service to Eastbourne and Days bay, or we could take the ferry over and get breakfast at the cafe and bum on the beach. But it was awkward for food shopping, because we weren’t as free to shop around. And lets face it – its a right pain in the patootie when you have to lug carrier bags full of food across town!
But then of course we decided to buy a house in the Wairarapa, and couldn’t put off buying a car any longer. Hubby would need it to get to work, even if he was using the train, and where were buying – will – there wasn’t a Tescos within walking distance. Nope – for country living – a car is a necessity.
So – MX5 it was then.
Ah nope!
Dammit but we needed a “sensible car” {Shudders}.
We ended up buying a “Station Wagon” which just sounds so hideous to me. Estate Car is so much more “English”. There were a number of reasons for this. Its was big, comfy, and very very fast. The fact that it was black, had blacked out windows and black lights glinting blackly on a black background also helped.
It was also only $9000, though we did have to spend another few $$$ on it afterwards. This was also at the time that my family were coming over for their first 6 months trip, and we figured it was big enough to fit all 5 of us plus a lot of luggage, which saved us a considerable amount of hassle and expense on getting them from Auckland to their new home, as we were going to take a few days holiday to do the trip and see some sights as well.
So that was that – still no MX5, all the money for a car spent on a fast, black, but decidedly non-convertible “sensible” car.
That was 5 years ago….
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Me and the MX5: Part1
In a previous life – I went through a divorce. And as many people do, I went out and spoiled myself afterwards with a completely unsensible and frivolous spending spree and bought a convertible. So about 11 years ago I bought my first wonderful British Racing Green MX5 – with pop-up headlights.
I had so much fun.
Then as luck would not have it – a bumble bee spoiled all my fun, by stinging a young lad in the arm while he was hurtling round a corner in the Forest of Dean, and he drove right in to me.
Which hurt. A lot.
So that was a write off, but the insurance paid out, and I went straight back to the dealer I had bought it from, and bought another one. That was my second British Racing Green MX5 – with pop-up headlights.
I had some laughs with that – as it had a disturbing habit of spinning wildly out of control at the most inconvenient moments – like just as I was going round roundabouts, and ending up facing the wrong way. So as this was just as me and new hubby were getting married and buggering off to NZ for 5 weeks on honeymoon, we dropped it back to the specialist dealer, and asked him to try and figure what was wrong.
When we got back – on a stupidly early flight into Heathrow, we detoured to Ilford to pick up the car. Apparently no one could replicate the madcap spinning – but they changed the wheels anyway, twiddled with the suspension, and prayed a bit. Thankfully – that seemed to do the trick, and I didn’t die mangled in a spinning car.
Of course at this point – we decided emigrating to NZ would be laugh.
Well, I wasn’t going to give up my lovely car, so started looking at shipping costs. Most companies were looking at charging about the same, and basically we were looking at hiring a 40ft container instead of a 20ft container, and boxing the car in.
At which point the gits at LTNZ (Land Transport New Zealand) threw a bureaucratic spanner in the wheels: we were not allowed to import the car becuase it didn’t have a Frontal Impact Standard Pass because it was 2 years too old.
But – I thought – the car obviously passed a frontal impact test in as much as a Transit Van driving at speed frontally impacted my last MX5 and I didn’t end up squished on the road. How much more frontal impact can you get than that????
Well – we reckoned this was those economic scams designed to stop scummy migrants from not spending more of their hard earned cash in New Zealand setting up their new lives.
Bah Humbug!
So I had to sell it.
When the guy came to buy it – I couldn’t watch as he drove it away. It was a few weeks before we were leaving – and I was gutted to be saying goodbye to my car. I swore I would buy another one as soon as we got to New Zealand….
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Moving to the city: not as easy as it sounds.
So we are becoming “Trendy City Folk” with an apartment in the big city and a county pile to escape to at the weekend.
I’d be turning in my grave if I had one.
On the plus side – we started with the country pile so we don’t have to work up to it, but still!
Now we actually own an apartment in the City, but that is rented out with really good tenants, and would actually cost us a small fortune to live in. So we are continue to keep that rented, and have rented another apartment ourselves in the same block. As much as I am not a city person – I have to say I do love the apartment itself. The building lets it down, and I am going to have to have words with the body corporate about what is going with the on site Gym and pool – I real selling point for me – as its a disgrace.
But – I’ve slept really well the couple of nights we have stayed there so far, we have a proper kitchen (cooker so clean it definitely wasn’t used by the previous tenant – not unusual), and space for a separate office. And our stonkingly large TV and surround sound system.
It could definitely be worse.
Our biggest issue was actually organizing the removal. We used Crown Relocations, who we recommend for the emigration move – they were brilliant. However shifting from the Wairarapa to Wellington with a fraction of the stuff we hauled half way round the world was much more tricky. It took hubby a lot of sorting out, and I believe at the final count he had to confirm our starting address, final address and access no less than 6 times. They have to paid in advance, but didn’t get the invoice to us till midday the day before. I had tp get the bank manager to set up the payment, and then send a confirmtion email, but the lady at Crown had gone home by then. Thankfully there was an out of office email which gave details of someone else to send the confirmation to, and he then called to confirm we were in fact moving.
All to get to wellington!
So we moved in - Crown arrived with our furniture, and i promptly left to have a coffee with a friend of mine, just round the corner from the apartment. City living has its benefits after all – I may as well make the most of them!
We topped off the evening with a couple of friends round and a bottle of wine.
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