Migrant experience: Rejections turn hope to anger

Chemical engineer Praveen Bhagat, 54, was elated when he was given approval to come to New Zealand to look for a job. Five months later, that elation has been replaced by anger and depression at the "roadblocks" he faces.

With his postgraduate skills given the tick by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, Mr Bhagat arrived from India with his tertiary-trained psychologist wife, Jyoti, and their 15-year-old son, Shikhar.

With no suitable job in sight, it has been suggested he should work in a service station. He refuses to do that, and is cold-calling during the evenings for a market research company while watching his savings dwindle.

"I have been very, very angry sometimes," Mr Bhagat admits.

He is one of a number of highly skilled foreigners who cannot find work. The phrase "lack of New Zealand experience" is often a flimsy excuse to deny migrants jobs, say employment experts.

But they say it stems more from inadequacies in dealing with migrants than racism.

The Herald today starts a three-part series looking at what is really going on when an employer applies those words to someone from another culture.

We found that at a time of acute labour shortages in Auckland, at least 1047 people invited here because of their qualifications and work experience are on the dole.

The phrase "lack of New Zealand experience" is "code for a number of uncertainties", says the Human Rights Commission's Judy McGregor, who became the country's first equal employment opportunities commissioner in October 2002.

"There is ... blatant discrimination, but there is also genuine employer uncertainty because they have not done it [employed a migrant] before," she says. "They don't know that it is going to work."

One person who has had success with hiring migrants is Karel Adriaens, the managing director of Coupland's Bakeries.

He estimates 10 per cent of the 150-strong workforce at his Christchurch headquarters are originally from outside New Zealand.

Any "tension and resentment" in the workplace is usually down to cultural differences, says Mr Adriaens. Simply talking and educating people breaks down any barriers.

Ministry of Social Development figures for last February show that the 1047 dole-drawing migrants, all under 60, arrived in the past five years. All were born outside Britain, the United States, Canada or Australia.

Of that group, 19 per cent (198 people) were "highly skilled" - they had degrees at least, says Sally Ewer, Work and Income refugee and migrant services manager.

But her figures tell only part of the story. Skilled migrants cannot get the dole until they have lived in New Zealand for two years, she says.

The statistics are unable to capture underemployment - highly qualified migrants doing entry-level jobs such as taxi-driving or pumping petrol.

But Mrs Ewer says the numbers of skilled migrants on the dole fell 37 per cent between February 2004 and last February. She ascribes that to the labour shortage, which means employers are forced to look further afield for staff.

* Are you a new migrant? Tell us your experience in trying to find a job?