Skilled migrants flee 'pariah' abuse in NZ

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

It took Pronalee Barua just 10 days to land an accounting job in Australia, thanks to a commerce degree from the University of Auckland that cut no ice with New Zealand employers.

Firms here passed up not only the first option on her talents, but then another 40 to 50 chances to hire the Bangladeshi immigrant, who is also a qualified forester.

That was how many jobs she applied for this year after completing what was her second degree, only to be rejected at every turn by employers who said she lacked New Zealand work experience.

Ms Barua, better known to her Kiwi friends as Kirsty, even lost out on a receptionist's job.

"Every time I go for a job they ask me for practical experience," she told the Herald in fluent although accented English, before heading in desperation to Australia three weeks ago with her similarly highly qualified husband and their 10-year-old daughter.

Within days the couple had jobs, their first steady paid work since immigrating to New Zealand 5 1/2 years ago.

They arrived from Bangladesh with forestry degrees topped with post-graduate diplomas from Australia, thinking job opportunities would be as thick on the ground as the trees on our hills.

But they were denied openings to the forestry industry, so Ms Barua studied for a polytechnic diploma in business studies and then her commerce degree, for which she had to take a student loan.

When the Herald met her, she was working as an unpaid administrative assistant for the Auckland People's Centre, trying to gain New Zealand office experience while worrying how to repay the loan on an unemployment benefit.

She hinted then that she might have to head for Australia, after hearing many of her friends had found work there. By the time the newspaper tried to contact her, to report her plight in its Jobs Challenge series, she had joined the exodus.

People's Centre finance manager Rachel Stevenson said Kirsty and her husband were among scores of immigrants forced to leave after being "treated like pariahs" by this country.

"They will make good Australian citizens," she said. "It is enormously wasteful. We spend a fortune as a country training people to go to Australia. They can't get jobs here because of anti-migrant feeling."

Ms Stevenson called on the Government to give immigrants practical help in getting their overseas qualifications up to scratch for entry into New Zealand professions, rather than to keep plugging away on poorly focused training courses.

She said the People's Centre, which provides cheap health and other services to people on low incomes at three south and central Auckland sites, saw hundreds of skilled immigrants such as engineers who were lucky if they could get jobs driving taxis. Many had arrived from war zones, full of hope, but became disillusioned by an almost total lack of support services.

Once they learned enough English to get back on their feet, and had stayed here for the three years required to gain New Zealand citizenship, there was nothing stopping them from seeking better opportunities in Australia.

People's Centre GP Dr Rebecca Potts said health problems facing unemployed migrants of all cultural backgrounds showed what a leveller poverty was.

"We see whole families devastated where both parents are unemployed, and severe cases of depression," said Dr Potts, who believes New Zealand has a responsibility to immigrants as an extension of its international peacekeeping duties.

She blamed poor diet and an inability to afford healthy food on a high incidence of diabetes among immigrants, whose limited savings were often squandered on training courses which rarely produced jobs.

"They are lucky to have any savings left after a year of spending money trying to be real estate agents or on computer courses. These courses just take money off people - they are a complete waste of money."

Dr Potts said Work and Income NZ too often encouraged migrants into businesses destined to fail, such as takeaway bars, and suggested that the Government provide interpreters at medical centres to ensure better access to health care.

Similarly, leaving migrants to rot on the dole was a complete waste of resources when some employers were complaining about skills shortages. "These are the people we need if we talk about wanting to build up a knowledge economy."

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