Will your child be a New Zealander – or an immigrant?
Don’t! That’s what I tell anyone contemplating a new life outside India. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not doing this with some sort of missionary zeal; I only dissuade those who care for my exceedingly humble opinion.
Last year when I went to India, a successful photographer friend, whose wife runs a thriving beauty clinic in New Delhi, and whose kids go to expensive schools, asked me about their prospects in New Zealand. Don’t!
That’s exactly what I told him. When I gave him the pluses and minuses, he was truly thankful for my opinion.
Two years ago when my younger brother told me that he had been offered a job in a pharmaceuticals company in London, and asked if he was making the right decision, I told him in a very neutral tone that if he took that job, he should never call me again. When he wondered if Britain was that bad an idea, I asked him if he would rather live and work in a country witnessing spectacular growth or a country where poverty is taking root. My brother threw away his offer letter and today he’s on his way to starting his own pharma business.
I’m not putting down foreign countries here. All I tell my friends and relatives is that when the clean, green feeling wears off after a few weeks, they’ll be looking at a much diminished pay packet, plus they are millions of miles from home, they don’t have family, friends or familiar faces around, they lose their professional network carefully built up over the years, and that’s just the start of their worries. Plus the likes of Paul Henry have just decided to come out of the woodworks. Is it worth giving up a secure, well-paying job to seek – or eke – out a ‘fortune’ abroad?
I leave that for each individual to decide for there is no one-size-fits-all answer to that question. Each immigrant has different circumstances that will decide their length of stay abroad. Some from despotic, cruel regimes and war-torn countries will find New Zealand, for instance, a paradise. Ambulance drivers from London will find the easy traffic and short distances of New Zealand a huge plus point. The dentist from Iraq and the refugee from Afghanistan are thankful for each day spent in this country.
Indian immigrants fall into a peculiar category. Fijian Indians, for instance, are fleeing a country that has known better days. They are nostalgic about their beautiful Pacific country but find their economic prospects greatly reduced back there, so New Zealand might offer them an excellent place to recoup their losses!
Indians from India belong to a heady mix – they come from professional backgrounds, trades, secure government jobs, non-descript sales jobs and, incredibly, refugees. Yes, refugees who have lied about being persecuted for their religious beliefs in order to get NZ residency. Of course, once their residency papers have been expedited they have that very week flown back to India to get married, attend weddings and spend a lovely holiday back home! Bizarre isn’t it? But why blame them if the New Zealand immigration authorities have welcomed them with open arms without checking their antecedents?
Traditionally, not many Indian tradesmen come to New Zealand though in recent times their numbers have grown. For them this country is a mixed bag – they get more money compared with what they could get in India but on the flip side they are mostly restricted to working in immigrant homes. Also, New Zealand doesn’t have the numbers to offer them sizeable business.
Finally, the professional class, who (often lured by the immigration department’s glossy brochures or misleading relatives promising a rich life) have given up promising careers in Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh and Chennai in quest of “a better life”. Sure, a good number of them are successful dentists, surgeons, lawyers and scientists. In fact at the Rotorua Deepawali Festival organised by the Hindu Council of New Zealand last month, I was struck by the huge number of Indian scientists living in the country and engaged in such rarefied fields as mathematical modelling, rocket science and hydrology.
Sadly, the overwhelming majority of professionally qualified and experienced Indians are in admin and low skill jobs, with few prospects to rise to the top. I call it the lost generation – a huge body of smart individuals who will not rise above their current mediocre professional standing in society but are hoping for, yes you got it, “a better life” for their children.
So let’s fast forward to the next generation. What are the prospects of these smart children? Indian children are achievers and are always known do well at school – whether in the US, Uganda, New Zealand, or Dubai. It is a measure of the Indian penchant for academic success that even children of dairy owners are enrolled in medical or engineering colleges.
Will this academic success translate into professional success? It’s hard to tell. In 20 years time will Telecom have an Indian-origin CEO? Will a Fijian Indian become New Zealand Prime Minister? Or will companies stick to the age-old formula of British imports? A lot of New Zealand companies seem to be comfortable nesting grounds for retired British nationals. Will things change for my children to be able to segue from university to the boardroom?
I watch with amusement a popular breakfast TV jockey imply that brown people are not really New Zealanders. And then his boss says, “he is prepared to say the things we quietly think but are scared to say out loud”. Whoa!
But how will your children feel if their competence is questioned after being raised and educated in New Zealand? While there’s a good chance people could be less xenophobic in a generation, are you prepared to take that chance?
Rakesh Krishnan Simha is an infidel. He is a features writer at New Zealand’s leading media house. He has previously worked with Businessworld, India Today and Hindustan Times, and was news editor with the Financial Express.
Don’t! That’s what I tell anyone contemplating a new life outside India. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not doing this with some sort of missionary zeal; I only dissuade those who care for my exceedingly humble opinion.
Last year when I went to India, a successful photographer friend, whose wife runs a...
Don’t! That’s what I tell anyone contemplating a new life outside India. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not doing this with some sort of missionary zeal; I only dissuade those who care for my exceedingly humble opinion.
Last year when I went to India, a successful photographer friend, whose wife runs a thriving beauty clinic in New Delhi, and whose kids go to expensive schools, asked me about their prospects in New Zealand. Don’t!
That’s exactly what I told him. When I gave him the pluses and minuses, he was truly thankful for my opinion.
Two years ago when my younger brother told me that he had been offered a job in a pharmaceuticals company in London, and asked if he was making the right decision, I told him in a very neutral tone that if he took that job, he should never call me again. When he wondered if Britain was that bad an idea, I asked him if he would rather live and work in a country witnessing spectacular growth or a country where poverty is taking root. My brother threw away his offer letter and today he’s on his way to starting his own pharma business.
I’m not putting down foreign countries here. All I tell my friends and relatives is that when the clean, green feeling wears off after a few weeks, they’ll be looking at a much diminished pay packet, plus they are millions of miles from home, they don’t have family, friends or familiar faces around, they lose their professional network carefully built up over the years, and that’s just the start of their worries. Plus the likes of Paul Henry have just decided to come out of the woodworks. Is it worth giving up a secure, well-paying job to seek – or eke – out a ‘fortune’ abroad?
I leave that for each individual to decide for there is no one-size-fits-all answer to that question. Each immigrant has different circumstances that will decide their length of stay abroad. Some from despotic, cruel regimes and war-torn countries will find New Zealand, for instance, a paradise. Ambulance drivers from London will find the easy traffic and short distances of New Zealand a huge plus point. The dentist from Iraq and the refugee from Afghanistan are thankful for each day spent in this country.
Indian immigrants fall into a peculiar category. Fijian Indians, for instance, are fleeing a country that has known better days. They are nostalgic about their beautiful Pacific country but find their economic prospects greatly reduced back there, so New Zealand might offer them an excellent place to recoup their losses!
Indians from India belong to a heady mix – they come from professional backgrounds, trades, secure government jobs, non-descript sales jobs and, incredibly, refugees. Yes, refugees who have lied about being persecuted for their religious beliefs in order to get NZ residency. Of course, once their residency papers have been expedited they have that very week flown back to India to get married, attend weddings and spend a lovely holiday back home! Bizarre isn’t it? But why blame them if the New Zealand immigration authorities have welcomed them with open arms without checking their antecedents?
Traditionally, not many Indian tradesmen come to New Zealand though in recent times their numbers have grown. For them this country is a mixed bag – they get more money compared with what they could get in India but on the flip side they are mostly restricted to working in immigrant homes. Also, New Zealand doesn’t have the numbers to offer them sizeable business.
Finally, the professional class, who (often lured by the immigration department’s glossy brochures or misleading relatives promising a rich life) have given up promising careers in Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh and Chennai in quest of “a better life”. Sure, a good number of them are successful dentists, surgeons, lawyers and scientists. In fact at the Rotorua Deepawali Festival organised by the Hindu Council of New Zealand last month, I was struck by the huge number of Indian scientists living in the country and engaged in such rarefied fields as mathematical modelling, rocket science and hydrology.
Sadly, the overwhelming majority of professionally qualified and experienced Indians are in admin and low skill jobs, with few prospects to rise to the top. I call it the lost generation – a huge body of smart individuals who will not rise above their current mediocre professional standing in society but are hoping for, yes you got it, “a better life” for their children.
So let’s fast forward to the next generation. What are the prospects of these smart children? Indian children are achievers and are always known do well at school – whether in the US, Uganda, New Zealand, or Dubai. It is a measure of the Indian penchant for academic success that even children of dairy owners are enrolled in medical or engineering colleges.
Will this academic success translate into professional success? It’s hard to tell. In 20 years time will Telecom have an Indian-origin CEO? Will a Fijian Indian become New Zealand Prime Minister? Or will companies stick to the age-old formula of British imports? A lot of New Zealand companies seem to be comfortable nesting grounds for retired British nationals. Will things change for my children to be able to segue from university to the boardroom?
I watch with amusement a popular breakfast TV jockey imply that brown people are not really New Zealanders. And then his boss says, “he is prepared to say the things we quietly think but are scared to say out loud”. Whoa!
But how will your children feel if their competence is questioned after being raised and educated in New Zealand? While there’s a good chance people could be less xenophobic in a generation, are you prepared to take that chance?
Rakesh Krishnan Simha is an infidel. He is a features writer at New Zealand’s leading media house. He has previously worked with Businessworld, India Today and Hindustan Times, and was news editor with the Financial Express.
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