Foreign cultures play strong role

By JULIE MIDDLETON

There's a character in Chinese that looks like a capital I.

It describes work, or a worker who is employed by others, says Auckland University career counsellor Sybil Au.

Inherent in the very structure of the character, with its cross bars, she says, is the sense that being an employee rather than an employer is some sort of vaguely truncated, negative state.

"The whole concept of that character is that you are being employed, that you can't grow any further," she says. "Achieving means being your own boss."

That such an attitude is enshrined in the silent markers of language emphasises how much entrepreneurship, of any type, is respected among Chinese.

Unlike New Zealand European culture, where self-employment in, say, the trades or a shop means some will see you as sitting further down the food chain, the respect accorded those who are their own bosses has a lot to do with what work Chinese choose.

One of the few exceptions to that view, says Au, is being the top dog in a large company. "In a big company you can be well-respected," she says.

Au is something of a rarity: she is among the 1 per cent of career counsellors and advisers in New Zealand who are of Asian heritage.

But in the absence of any research on the issue, she is well placed to pick out links between the way many Chinese people live and how they structure their working lives.

As with Maori, eldest children may be expected to set an example.

"Parents may look at the eldest for a role model for younger siblings," she says.

A desire for a solid education for their children unites many New Zealand parents of Chinese background.

It's a Confucian ideal, says Au: "It's cultural ... Even if they can't really afford it, parents will try their hardest to get the best education for their children.

"That's across the board, wherever you come from."

Like many people of Pacific Island descent born in New Zealand, Auckland College of Education staff member Airini (she has no surname) terms herself Pasifika instead.

And because she is born into both Pacific and Palagi (Western) culture, she says, it can be hard to distinguish how much heritage impacts on career decisions. There is no research yet to pin the links down.

Many Pasifika people have excelled academically; Airini, not content with a teaching diploma, followed it with a masters degree and a doctorate.

But she says: "We're never sure that what you do is because of who you are or what you have. Or rather, is it because people perceive you in a certain way?"

Airini, who is the college's director of Pasifika development, says every day is "race day", describing the casual assumptions people make which, while maybe not overtly racist, are lazy.

She and the college's Pasifika success coordinator, Pale Sauni, identify parental expectations as a huge influence still on children's career decisions, though this may not always match the child's interests or talents.

Sauni, who was born in Samoa but came to New Zealand aged 2, says Island-born parents prefer to see their kids, especially the family mantle-wearing eldest boy, take on traditionally high-status roles: ministers of the church, teachers, doctors, accountants and lawyers.

Although such directives are losing their power as the New Zealand-born assert different aspirations, says Sauni, "I think it still exists".

"In my day, everyone grew up in churches. We all had the same sort of buzz then about our careers, that we were all going to be lawyers or doctors or accountants, so we would be able to support just the reason the family came here."

That is, economic opportunity.

Carol Fatialofa, a Pasifika career adviser with the Auckland company Careerworks, says the last five to seven years have seen parents accept wider options, such as the performing arts: "The definition of achieving is changing."

Sauni also identifies a sense of spiritual calling to a role, and it may be part of the influence on those drawn to service-type careers such as teaching or social working.

But Airini points out that talking about careers with Pacific and Pasifika people involves a major clear-out of all assumptions, stereotypes and expectations.

"You need to be acutely listening - and that's useful in any culture," she says. "Family desires do still carry weight, and may genuinely come ahead of personal career goals."

She says sincere listening will combat the stereotype that Pasifika people don't have career paths and desires.

"Pasifika people are on the track and are running. They are going to be management, the lawyers, accountants. What we have to realise is how it is that people get on to the track and run.

"We often see culture as a snapshot, freezing a moment, mostly a view of culture.

"The reality is that culture is more like a movie."