Dialogue: Immigrants in need of a working welcome

With immigration to be boosted, the Government, employers, communities and the immigrants themselves can help the process, writes KERR INKSON*.

The announcement by the Minister of Immigration, Lianne Dalziel, that New Zealand is to boost immigration by up to 10,000 per year has been met with scepticism.

The brain drain, whereby talented Kiwis go overseas on OE, find overseas careers more exciting and better paid than those in New Zealand, and stay away for good, has become a worry for the whole country. Presumably the aim is to counteract the drain with a brain gain by bringing in talented knowledge workers from overseas.

However, contributing to our knowledge economy requires more than just the presence of talented people. Such people must be welcomed, integrated into the community and workforce, and given positions where their skills and experience are fully used.

In this area, the situation is not reassuring. There is anecdotal evidence of many well-qualified immigrants having major problems with access to worthwhile jobs or acceptance by local professional bodies.

Last year, a Massey University postgraduate student, Kam Chuen Chan, himself an immigrant of several years' standing, surveyed the work experiences of 234 immigrants from Hong Kong, Taiwan and China resident in Auckland. The sample covered both sexes and all age groups. All the participants wanted full-time work.

Seven per cent had been in New Zealand for more than a year; 62 per cent had degrees. Only 35 per cent of these people had been able to find full-time work; 13 per cent had part-time work, and a further 10 per cent described themselves as self-employed, though anecdotal evidence suggested that in many cases this meant they were virtually unemployed. And 42 per cent of the sample had no work of any sort.

Even among the minority who were employed, most were in work they felt was not fully utilising their skills. Whereas many had earned salaries of more than $100,000 before emigrating, no one in the sample was earning more than $60,000.

For some immigrants, the problem was compounded by age. For those over 40, the rate of unemployment was 53 per cent.

Kam Chuen Chan's report contains a litany of similar statistics. His own experience confirmed his findings.

He has an MBA degree from a British university, proven experience in sales, marketing, and trade in Hong Kong (where he was loyal to his employer for 12 years before emigrating), a strong work ethic, and English good enough to enable him to earn a Masters degree at Massey University.

Despite this, and despite applying for more than 100 jobs, he was unemployed for more than four years after arriving in November 1996.

When he asked his respondents to identify barriers to employment which they felt they faced, highly rated items included:

* Absence of local working experience (but how can experience be acquired if no one will give the immigrant a job?).

* Language (but how can language skills be judged without an interview?).

* Overseas qualifications not recognised (so many, like Mr Chan, had acquired local qualifications but still had difficulty).

* Overqualified for the job market (but many were willing to start again at the bottom and still could not find jobs).

* Race.

* Cultural difference.

Now we may be getting to the truth. In four years, not only did Mr Chan fail to get a job, he failed to get a single interview. The suspicion must be that the name Chan on his application forms was enough to disqualify him. His English was never tested because no employer heard him speak.

At worst, the findings suggest New Zealand is xenophobic about its Asian community to the point of being unfit to compete on the international stage. At best, they suggest there is a huge underuse of this valuable human resource.

But is this because immigrants have done too little to help themselves through assertive job-seeking or acquisition of local language, experience and qualifications? Is it because prejudiced employers are indulging in illegal, but largely unprovable, discrimination? Or is it because the Government and the communities in which immigrants live have done too little to provide them with the initial support they need if they are to contribute? Perhaps all these have elements of the truth.

Mr Chan has some suggestions for immigrants, employers, the Government and the community:

* Immigrants might work harder to involve themselves in the wider community, seek intensive learning experiences in English, and be as flexible as possible in their initial choices of jobs.

* Employers should attempt to discard ethnic stereotypes, make it their business to at least interview well-qualified immigrant candidates, and provide work-trial opportunities so immigrants' abilities can be objectively assessed.

* The Government could provide better information to immigrants before their arrival, better settlement services (including free English courses), incentive schemes and subsidies to encourage local employers to experiment with immigrant employees, and role model recruitment of minorities in the public service.

* The community could work harder at making immigrants welcome, and could look for projects in which immigrants' skills are exchanged for help in learning English and other local skills.

An experiment conducted last year at Mangere Bridge School points the way.

With the encouragement of MP Pansy Wong, a group of unemployed but computer-literate Chinese immigrants provided unpaid tuition sessions on computer use to pupils aged between 8 and 11.

The pupils learned computer skills, developed cultural sensitivity, and enjoyed the relationship with their immigrant tutors. The immigrants improved their English, interpersonal skills and self-confidence. It was a win-win situation.

Results, however, were mixed. Of 13 immigrants taking part, five have got jobs, two are studying at university, two have gone to Australia, and four are still unemployed. No doubt the experiment provided help for some people who would otherwise have been stuck. With a little thought, experiments like this are possible everywhere.

As New Zealanders continue to leave for Australia and Europe, and immigrants continue to flow in from Asia, South Africa and the Middle East, the proportion of ethnic minorities is rising inexorably. We all have a part to play here, and we all have to get it right.

* Kerr Inkson is professor of management at Massey University, Albany.