Stars in their eyes – but miles to go….
India provides the world’s second highest number of international students, to New Zealand, second only to China. Recent economic and political changes in India have possibly sparked a process which is being catalyzed by a rapid growth in the middle class, an ever-increasing youth population, and an enormous unmet demand for education. Marry that with dreams of finding a better life, living the Kiwi lifestyle (as perceived while you are still in India) and living in possibly the most beautiful country in the world.
While, the Indian government seeks to address the country’s discrepancy between its economic potential and its education system, sending the country’s youth to study overseas remains a much needed support system. The number of Indian tertiary students going overseas to study rose by almost 350% between 2000 and 2011 – from 58,091 to 203,338 students. International student numbers are expected to remain high as Indian students continue to demand quality education; India’s own growing industry continues to seek skilled graduates who are work-ready; and the Indian government remains firmly focused on skills development.
Putting this in context of New Zealand , India is New Zealand’s second-largest and fastest-growing source country for international students. With 65 percent of its population under the age of 35, and a high rate of underemployment, India looks to train and skill several million youth each year, with construction and agriculture among the two key focus areas for improvement – areas that align with New Zealand’s expertise.
India is a priority market for Education NZ, offering significant opportunities in student recruitment as students actively seek opportunities not offered in India, and India’s industry calls for work-ready graduates. To add to this, India also offers business development opportunities as the Indian government seeks to skill 500 million people by 2022 with help from international partners. The profile of education in New Zealand continues to grow in India with Education NZ following a sustained and comprehensive marketing and media campaign. Their USP - “sharing good news stories”. It is these good news stories that then gives rise to dreams and “stars in the eyes” of the youth, who then put everything else at stake to find their own “good news story” for themselves in the land of the long white cloud.
In the first eight months of 2014 about 15,640 Indian students were studying in New Zealand, a 60 percent increase over the same period in 2013.
The government estimates the students would have spent approximately $433 million on fees and living costs, and that figure looks set to grow even further this year. Seventy percent of Indian students are enrolled with private tertiary institutions and about 20 percent with polytechnics. The Independent Tertiary Institutions represents 14 education companies. Its chairman Feroz Ali told Radio New Zealand that the growth was likely to continue unabated.
"I'm expecting it to grow at a similar level to 2014 and that's due to several factors ... the New Zealand dollar where it is (and ) more importantly, there's the right incentives in place for attracting students to New Zealand." Those incentives included the ability to get a job-seeker visa and potentially qualify for residency. These incentives also include the percentage of the commission being offered to the agents representing New Zealand institutes in India.
Mr Ali said in a report published by Radio New Zealand that the tertiary institutions had the capacity to take even more foreign students. The total number is not yet at the peak experienced in the early 2000s and the main risk to the now-booming Indian market was failing to deliver what had been promised. He added "We've got to give them high quality education but also we've got to come true to ... whatever we promised them. You're going to get a world class education but would that lead to meaningful employment or further training? And if we don't keep that promise, that's going to damage our reputation."
Beyond the government policies and strategies on both sides, are lives of young students that come to New Zealand. As Mr Ali said are these students really finding “ meaningful employment”? Most international students come reliant on the 20 hours work that they are allowed on student visas to pay for their survival in the country. For students from India where the conversion rate is almost 1:50, whose families mortgage their homes and sell their gold to put the money together for their children to study in New Zealand, are they really getting the employment that they hope to secure.
India is a country that offers no social security and in some ways this maybe a good thing as all of us Indians grow up knowing that to get through life we will need to work hard and pay our way through. So needless to say these students who come here to study are more than willing to work hard to earn their way through being able to pay for their lives here, but is the economy and the work opportunity in New Zealand able to support that energy, motivation and enthusiasm? We all know the answer to that question.
This is the part where the abusive employers step in and exploit these students who are willing to work to pay for their livelihood and not to pressurize their families back home for more money than what they have already spent to pay for their course fees. We do however believe that the story of rogue employers is incomplete if both the sides of the coin are not looked at and therefore that will need to wait for another time. In this issue, we are just exploring the reality of the challenges that our youth, who make a large number of overseas student population face.
An article in Nelson Mail earlier this year summed up the reality quite clearly. The article stated that spokesman Anshul Munjal heard about NMIT from an agent in India. Everything the agent told him was a lie, Munjal said. "They told me you have three classes a week. I came here and saw I have three classes a month."
It said “International students would pay about $20,000 for the 18-month programme. It would involve 156 teaching hours, and 1704 "self-directed" hours. Munjal came here thinking he would make friends with New Zealanders, only to find his classes were full of other international students. The group had come to New Zealand with a view of staying and working in their professions. Now they all wanted to go home.
“One of their friends was so desperate he tried to kill himself.”
Munjal said they were told they would get good money, career opportunities, houses and cars - all the "dreamy things" - and be able to send money home.
The reality was struggling to find work, and asking for more from their families. The group spoke proficient English. Between them, they had mortgaged a house, sold a mother's jewelry and taken loans from banks and family members to get to NMIT, he said. "We were rich there and we bought poorness."
This seems to sum up what the reality might look like for most of these students. Its commonplace for them to live in overcrowded apartments. To eat miserly, living on instant noodles and bread. A large number of students also frequent between the bay of plenty region and Auckland, rushing between their classrooms and the farms they work on. One of these journeys turned fatal for a student recently. Needless to say the children from families that can provide all comforts for them find themselves struggling day to day. This not only takes a physical toll on them but is a test of their mental and emotional make up as well.
Indian Weekender took to the streets to speak to the students and hear first hand about what they had to say about their situation, watch their videos on www.youtube.co.nz/indianweekender and read on for what they had to say :
Vatsal
“I am here for the last six months studying in a business college. It is so difficult to find a job here and so many hard days I have seen here but then finally I got a good job. I was studying automobile engineering in India but here I am studying business because I wanted to get some knowledge of business too. I live in a two room apartment in the city with eight people. Yes, since the rent is high and job hours are less so we stay together to reduce the rent burden on each of us. When I came from India I thought I will complete my studies and apply for PR but nowadays so many people are here, it’s difficult to even get a job here. I see so many have come here and without IELTS and even they don’t know how to speak English and New Zealand have given them the permission to come here and study. The study here is very practical and is very much different from India.
Otago Polytechnic Students
“We chose NZ because it is a beautiful country with a good lifestyle and people are very friendly here. We were told that the future prospects over here are good and the quality of life is also good so we decided to come and study here. We came here with no expectations and wanted to explore this country, it’s been six to eight months for all of us here. We all are working at different places and we are also paid on minimum wage, it was difficult in the beginning but after struggling for a few months we all secured a good part time job here. We work close to 20 hours and we were never exploited by our employees, though we have heard stories about other students but fortunately none of us were exploited. In the last few months we have learned a lot, our personalities have improved, the exposure we are getting is immense over here. There are around 60 students in our class with about 50% from India and the rest from South East Asia; we don’t have Kiwi students here since it is an international campus. The education system in NZ is much better to that of India. We are staying at different places, each of us with around two to three roommates.
Sumit Patel
I am living here for the last one year studying IT here in Auckland. When I came here I was quite disappointed since I didn’t have a job for two months and I finally had to work at a farm. I am doing diploma in IT and there are no jobs or avenues in IT here, so to make ends meet I go to Tauranga and work in the farms there. Farming work is not that good and not that bad either; I earn something, pay my expenses and also save something so it is kind of okay with me now.
We had this expectation that we will get a part time job here, study, save and settle down here but the scenario here is that getting normal labour work too is so difficult; in fact there is no work in Auckland at all. It is not just me, students who come from India 70% are working in Tauranga and they commute to Auckland to study, stay for a day or two in backpackers and then go back to Tauranga to the farm. I find India’s education system better than here, because there is no exam system here and only assignments which is not really checked by them. It can be thus said that people are only here to settle down and get visa extended.
I am barely getting 20 hours work weekly since there is not much work in farming too because of the seasonal change and climate. I come early morning at 3am on Friday, do my classes and go back on Saturday evening. To survive we are seven people living there in house in Tauranga so the expenses go down. No, I have never felt exploited by my employers, but I know that work is hard and is tiring.
Kunal Gandhi
I am a student of IT living here for the last eight months and working with a company that does delivery of fruits and vegetables in the hotels and restaurants. I want to study here and make a bright future. I am here for study purpose and it’s not like I want to settle down here, I will see if I get a job here, else I will see and go somewhere else. I live in Sandringham with six people in a house of three rooms.
Lovepreet Singh
I am a student here for the last five months studying English here and my course will end in another two months. After eight or nine days in my college, my visa was cancelled and I had to apply for a new student visa that did not allow me to work here in New Zealand. It’s been difficult for me since my visa was cancelled by Immigration and I think the mistake was from the college and the agent through which I came to New Zealand. So, nowadays I am only studying and not working, I manage my finances from FTS (Fund Transfer Scheme) that comes from India. I think people here are very selfish because there are very less jobs and people are not helping. If I keep working in the farm what will I learn and how will I make my future in this country. I have to apply for a new student visa for one year next month and that will be level 5, I will clear IELTS and then get my visa extended. Because when my visa was cancelled my college said that I will get refund and then I can go back to India; but I said I have made plans and invested my time and money here, I am not ready to move back to India, then the college said that I have to stay here for six months clear IELTS and then again get my visa extended for the business course I want to do.
Karan
I am studying business here, the challenges that I have faced is that cost of living is high and I had to struggle for almost three months to find one decent job for myself and finally got into Countdown. Auckland is half of Indians and most of them started without IELTS so it is tougher to get a job here, so are studies here. We come here for a new life and to stand by on ourselves, and we have heavy loans on our head from back in India. We expected to get more hours to work here since I think in an expensive city like Auckland, 20 hours of work and the wage is pretty low. I think we should get more hours and a higher minimum wage rate. The education is not up to the mark to that of India, because I have gone off track, I am supposed to study Bachelors but now after finishing this study I have to do Bachelors and then Masters so my studies are pushed by another two years. I am not really exploited by the employers because I have been working with Kiwis and they were pretty good with me, but I know that some of the Indian employers are exploiting the students. Since I wear a turban, I can’t really get a job in the food court and but yes slowly the Kiwi employers are adopting our values and understanding us.
Gurdeep Singh
I have been here for the last one year and I am working at Countdown too. Looking for jobs is the first most important challenge for us and that too for up to three months and I was not able to pay my rent. Some people come with FTS (Fund Transfer Scheme) so it becomes a little easy for them. I somehow managed with what I got from India but some of my friends, they were completely broke, and so they would borrow from friends and pay their expenses. We are six people living in the house and it is a little better. We had huge expectations from the country; we will get jobs and a good place to live. I earn around $250 a week and then I have expenses like the rent, then bus fares, then eating out at times when in college, so most of the our salary goes into that and I can hardly save anything. I paid the FTS of 15000 and then the fees for level 5 in $17500 and 2nd year fees are $6000. I think there should be more job opportunities and accommodation facilities for the Indian students.
Punjabi Group
We are studying Business National Diploma, level 6 and we do part time jobs. We all need to struggle a lot in the beginning because when we come here we have family pressure; studies pressure then we has to earn our own living along with other responsibilities. I have seen so many students struggling like us to get a cheap accommodation and some also stay on the streets. I have a friend who stays on the streets because he does not have a job so he cannot pay his rent and expenses. Since English is not our native language it creates a lot of issues to communicate here. Many come here without IELTS so they face a lot of problems such as they cannot speak to anyone and no one understands their language and it creates a barrier in getting jobs also. Even the Indians check the communication skills of the students. Sometimes we are also exploited by our employers, there are heaps of students who are working under the table since they have financial issues and they will do anything to even get $6 an hour. In the starting the employers did offer only cash jobs to us and we had to do since we did not have much choice then. I started working under one with $7 an hour from 9am in the morning till 7pm in the evening. We kind of blame the Punjabis who came first, they settled here and they created a big problem, Indians are hiring Indians at minimal wage like $6 an hour, we can complain but we don’t want to get into all of that. I think people who are offered cash jobs initially should deny it and not encourage them. There should be done something for the students because in India we are told that jobs are easy, work permit is easy but at the end it is not that easy and clear.
Immigration allows the students to come here and give the visa after taking good amount as fees from us. There are our seniors who studied here and did not get job search visas. Work visas are also being denied to some students and they have to show a managerial position in the firm and they have to provide the certificate. The agents have created a good base and a huge marketing and take a lot from the students by making false promises and then we students come to realise the truth and we suffer.
Abhishek Baral, Kathmandu
I am Student at Ntec. I am living in NZ for about 8 months now. I am working also and getting the minimum wage. But I think job opportunities here are very few and housing is very expensive. Luckily I haven’t gone through any hardship yet but I faced a lot more struggle than I was ready for when I came to New Zealand but I am lucky that unlike many others, my employer treats me well.
But one think I would like to say that I don’t like the NZ education system because some of our tutors don’t teach well. Our courses are of two years and we get visas of only one year and then we have to extend it again by showing funds. The living expenses that we have to show to extend our visas are too much. It is not possible to earn that much money as a student in one year. I would like to suggest that to improve students’ situation, after paying the college fees, they should not be made to show living expenses all over again. A student cannot show $23,000 at one go in their bank account. That’s just too much.
Arshnoor Singh Atwal, Punjab
I am studying at Ntec. I am in NZ from about 9 months now. I don’t have any issues with my job as I am at least getting minimum wage. I am working with current my employer for 8 months now. I get full time work during vacations. So he has been quite good. He has already given me a supervisory position.
But there are other problems like housing is at least $200 per week, which is very steep. I had to borrow $2000 to buy a car to do my job and for my personal transport.
When I first came here, I worked for just 4 days casual job and I had to stand in the same position, holding a banner. That was very difficult. I thought I will be settled within a month, but it took me two-three months to find a footing. Because the living expenses were paid from India initially, it helped me settle down. Otherwise, I would be under many loans by now.
Students’ situation in New Zealand can be improved by eliminating the funds we need to show after paying the fees. These days the immigration does not accept job contracts as funding, but cash in the bank account. This is not fair.
Harjot Singh, Punjab
I am in NZ and in Ntec from 8 months now. I had to struggle a lot to find a job when I arrived here and then, I needed a car. So I needed money and I wasn’t prepared to spend so much. When I had vacations, I had to work on Fridays and Saturdays, 8 hours shift in day-time and 8 hours shift at night-time on the same days. Luckily I am at least getting the minimum wage and good work environment as well, which many students from India don’t get.
I thought I will have a good job and a good living standard. Most of them are fulfilled, but it has not been easy. If I talk about education, when I first arrived here, it was difficult to understand what was being told to us. The accent was very different. But now it is all good. I think when visa is given to students back home, they should be given a month’s training by New Zealanders in English. This should be the responsibility of the college.
Mandira Rimal
I am originally from Nepal and now doing business in business management in NTEC.I am in New Zealand from 8 months. I had to face many problems at the beginning for searching the job as the place was totally new for me and it was totally different from my country as well. Heaps of students from Nepal as well as many other countries were coming here for the study so the opportunities of getting the job was less due to more students. I searched in websites about the job and different other hard works like dropping CV door to door for getting the job. As we know the hard work always success finally I got the interview from burger king and now I am doing part time job in burger king .I am also getting the minimum wages from there with which I can carry out my living expenses now. Every person while going out of country has the high expectations to gain more education and all other things what we don’t get in our home country. My expectations were also too high while I came here but also I didn’t find it that much good as well as I expected. Links and contacts are more important to get job rather than skills and ability to work here as well. Overall my experience here in New Zealand is good now because the main thing is I have become independent coming here but it’s not that much good as I expected. Employers are good and supportive here but in some case the unity of nationality matters because of which sometimes we feel down as well.
( Sources of information : www.enz.govt.nz , www.radionz.co.nz, www.stuff.co.nz, student comments as told by the named students to Leena Pal, Paula Ray and Md Rizwan of Indian Weekeneder)
India provides the world’s second highest number of international students, to New Zealand, second only to China. Recent economic and political changes in India have possibly sparked a process which is being catalyzed by a rapid growth in the middle class, an ever-increasing youth population, and...
India provides the world’s second highest number of international students, to New Zealand, second only to China. Recent economic and political changes in India have possibly sparked a process which is being catalyzed by a rapid growth in the middle class, an ever-increasing youth population, and an enormous unmet demand for education. Marry that with dreams of finding a better life, living the Kiwi lifestyle (as perceived while you are still in India) and living in possibly the most beautiful country in the world.
While, the Indian government seeks to address the country’s discrepancy between its economic potential and its education system, sending the country’s youth to study overseas remains a much needed support system. The number of Indian tertiary students going overseas to study rose by almost 350% between 2000 and 2011 – from 58,091 to 203,338 students. International student numbers are expected to remain high as Indian students continue to demand quality education; India’s own growing industry continues to seek skilled graduates who are work-ready; and the Indian government remains firmly focused on skills development.
Putting this in context of New Zealand , India is New Zealand’s second-largest and fastest-growing source country for international students. With 65 percent of its population under the age of 35, and a high rate of underemployment, India looks to train and skill several million youth each year, with construction and agriculture among the two key focus areas for improvement – areas that align with New Zealand’s expertise.
India is a priority market for Education NZ, offering significant opportunities in student recruitment as students actively seek opportunities not offered in India, and India’s industry calls for work-ready graduates. To add to this, India also offers business development opportunities as the Indian government seeks to skill 500 million people by 2022 with help from international partners. The profile of education in New Zealand continues to grow in India with Education NZ following a sustained and comprehensive marketing and media campaign. Their USP - “sharing good news stories”. It is these good news stories that then gives rise to dreams and “stars in the eyes” of the youth, who then put everything else at stake to find their own “good news story” for themselves in the land of the long white cloud.
In the first eight months of 2014 about 15,640 Indian students were studying in New Zealand, a 60 percent increase over the same period in 2013.
The government estimates the students would have spent approximately $433 million on fees and living costs, and that figure looks set to grow even further this year. Seventy percent of Indian students are enrolled with private tertiary institutions and about 20 percent with polytechnics. The Independent Tertiary Institutions represents 14 education companies. Its chairman Feroz Ali told Radio New Zealand that the growth was likely to continue unabated.
"I'm expecting it to grow at a similar level to 2014 and that's due to several factors ... the New Zealand dollar where it is (and ) more importantly, there's the right incentives in place for attracting students to New Zealand." Those incentives included the ability to get a job-seeker visa and potentially qualify for residency. These incentives also include the percentage of the commission being offered to the agents representing New Zealand institutes in India.
Mr Ali said in a report published by Radio New Zealand that the tertiary institutions had the capacity to take even more foreign students. The total number is not yet at the peak experienced in the early 2000s and the main risk to the now-booming Indian market was failing to deliver what had been promised. He added "We've got to give them high quality education but also we've got to come true to ... whatever we promised them. You're going to get a world class education but would that lead to meaningful employment or further training? And if we don't keep that promise, that's going to damage our reputation."
Beyond the government policies and strategies on both sides, are lives of young students that come to New Zealand. As Mr Ali said are these students really finding “ meaningful employment”? Most international students come reliant on the 20 hours work that they are allowed on student visas to pay for their survival in the country. For students from India where the conversion rate is almost 1:50, whose families mortgage their homes and sell their gold to put the money together for their children to study in New Zealand, are they really getting the employment that they hope to secure.
India is a country that offers no social security and in some ways this maybe a good thing as all of us Indians grow up knowing that to get through life we will need to work hard and pay our way through. So needless to say these students who come here to study are more than willing to work hard to earn their way through being able to pay for their lives here, but is the economy and the work opportunity in New Zealand able to support that energy, motivation and enthusiasm? We all know the answer to that question.
This is the part where the abusive employers step in and exploit these students who are willing to work to pay for their livelihood and not to pressurize their families back home for more money than what they have already spent to pay for their course fees. We do however believe that the story of rogue employers is incomplete if both the sides of the coin are not looked at and therefore that will need to wait for another time. In this issue, we are just exploring the reality of the challenges that our youth, who make a large number of overseas student population face.
An article in Nelson Mail earlier this year summed up the reality quite clearly. The article stated that spokesman Anshul Munjal heard about NMIT from an agent in India. Everything the agent told him was a lie, Munjal said. "They told me you have three classes a week. I came here and saw I have three classes a month."
It said “International students would pay about $20,000 for the 18-month programme. It would involve 156 teaching hours, and 1704 "self-directed" hours. Munjal came here thinking he would make friends with New Zealanders, only to find his classes were full of other international students. The group had come to New Zealand with a view of staying and working in their professions. Now they all wanted to go home.
“One of their friends was so desperate he tried to kill himself.”
Munjal said they were told they would get good money, career opportunities, houses and cars - all the "dreamy things" - and be able to send money home.
The reality was struggling to find work, and asking for more from their families. The group spoke proficient English. Between them, they had mortgaged a house, sold a mother's jewelry and taken loans from banks and family members to get to NMIT, he said. "We were rich there and we bought poorness."
This seems to sum up what the reality might look like for most of these students. Its commonplace for them to live in overcrowded apartments. To eat miserly, living on instant noodles and bread. A large number of students also frequent between the bay of plenty region and Auckland, rushing between their classrooms and the farms they work on. One of these journeys turned fatal for a student recently. Needless to say the children from families that can provide all comforts for them find themselves struggling day to day. This not only takes a physical toll on them but is a test of their mental and emotional make up as well.
Indian Weekender took to the streets to speak to the students and hear first hand about what they had to say about their situation, watch their videos on www.youtube.co.nz/indianweekender and read on for what they had to say :
Vatsal
“I am here for the last six months studying in a business college. It is so difficult to find a job here and so many hard days I have seen here but then finally I got a good job. I was studying automobile engineering in India but here I am studying business because I wanted to get some knowledge of business too. I live in a two room apartment in the city with eight people. Yes, since the rent is high and job hours are less so we stay together to reduce the rent burden on each of us. When I came from India I thought I will complete my studies and apply for PR but nowadays so many people are here, it’s difficult to even get a job here. I see so many have come here and without IELTS and even they don’t know how to speak English and New Zealand have given them the permission to come here and study. The study here is very practical and is very much different from India.
Otago Polytechnic Students
“We chose NZ because it is a beautiful country with a good lifestyle and people are very friendly here. We were told that the future prospects over here are good and the quality of life is also good so we decided to come and study here. We came here with no expectations and wanted to explore this country, it’s been six to eight months for all of us here. We all are working at different places and we are also paid on minimum wage, it was difficult in the beginning but after struggling for a few months we all secured a good part time job here. We work close to 20 hours and we were never exploited by our employees, though we have heard stories about other students but fortunately none of us were exploited. In the last few months we have learned a lot, our personalities have improved, the exposure we are getting is immense over here. There are around 60 students in our class with about 50% from India and the rest from South East Asia; we don’t have Kiwi students here since it is an international campus. The education system in NZ is much better to that of India. We are staying at different places, each of us with around two to three roommates.
Sumit Patel
I am living here for the last one year studying IT here in Auckland. When I came here I was quite disappointed since I didn’t have a job for two months and I finally had to work at a farm. I am doing diploma in IT and there are no jobs or avenues in IT here, so to make ends meet I go to Tauranga and work in the farms there. Farming work is not that good and not that bad either; I earn something, pay my expenses and also save something so it is kind of okay with me now.
We had this expectation that we will get a part time job here, study, save and settle down here but the scenario here is that getting normal labour work too is so difficult; in fact there is no work in Auckland at all. It is not just me, students who come from India 70% are working in Tauranga and they commute to Auckland to study, stay for a day or two in backpackers and then go back to Tauranga to the farm. I find India’s education system better than here, because there is no exam system here and only assignments which is not really checked by them. It can be thus said that people are only here to settle down and get visa extended.
I am barely getting 20 hours work weekly since there is not much work in farming too because of the seasonal change and climate. I come early morning at 3am on Friday, do my classes and go back on Saturday evening. To survive we are seven people living there in house in Tauranga so the expenses go down. No, I have never felt exploited by my employers, but I know that work is hard and is tiring.
Kunal Gandhi
I am a student of IT living here for the last eight months and working with a company that does delivery of fruits and vegetables in the hotels and restaurants. I want to study here and make a bright future. I am here for study purpose and it’s not like I want to settle down here, I will see if I get a job here, else I will see and go somewhere else. I live in Sandringham with six people in a house of three rooms.
Lovepreet Singh
I am a student here for the last five months studying English here and my course will end in another two months. After eight or nine days in my college, my visa was cancelled and I had to apply for a new student visa that did not allow me to work here in New Zealand. It’s been difficult for me since my visa was cancelled by Immigration and I think the mistake was from the college and the agent through which I came to New Zealand. So, nowadays I am only studying and not working, I manage my finances from FTS (Fund Transfer Scheme) that comes from India. I think people here are very selfish because there are very less jobs and people are not helping. If I keep working in the farm what will I learn and how will I make my future in this country. I have to apply for a new student visa for one year next month and that will be level 5, I will clear IELTS and then get my visa extended. Because when my visa was cancelled my college said that I will get refund and then I can go back to India; but I said I have made plans and invested my time and money here, I am not ready to move back to India, then the college said that I have to stay here for six months clear IELTS and then again get my visa extended for the business course I want to do.
Karan
I am studying business here, the challenges that I have faced is that cost of living is high and I had to struggle for almost three months to find one decent job for myself and finally got into Countdown. Auckland is half of Indians and most of them started without IELTS so it is tougher to get a job here, so are studies here. We come here for a new life and to stand by on ourselves, and we have heavy loans on our head from back in India. We expected to get more hours to work here since I think in an expensive city like Auckland, 20 hours of work and the wage is pretty low. I think we should get more hours and a higher minimum wage rate. The education is not up to the mark to that of India, because I have gone off track, I am supposed to study Bachelors but now after finishing this study I have to do Bachelors and then Masters so my studies are pushed by another two years. I am not really exploited by the employers because I have been working with Kiwis and they were pretty good with me, but I know that some of the Indian employers are exploiting the students. Since I wear a turban, I can’t really get a job in the food court and but yes slowly the Kiwi employers are adopting our values and understanding us.
Gurdeep Singh
I have been here for the last one year and I am working at Countdown too. Looking for jobs is the first most important challenge for us and that too for up to three months and I was not able to pay my rent. Some people come with FTS (Fund Transfer Scheme) so it becomes a little easy for them. I somehow managed with what I got from India but some of my friends, they were completely broke, and so they would borrow from friends and pay their expenses. We are six people living in the house and it is a little better. We had huge expectations from the country; we will get jobs and a good place to live. I earn around $250 a week and then I have expenses like the rent, then bus fares, then eating out at times when in college, so most of the our salary goes into that and I can hardly save anything. I paid the FTS of 15000 and then the fees for level 5 in $17500 and 2nd year fees are $6000. I think there should be more job opportunities and accommodation facilities for the Indian students.
Punjabi Group
We are studying Business National Diploma, level 6 and we do part time jobs. We all need to struggle a lot in the beginning because when we come here we have family pressure; studies pressure then we has to earn our own living along with other responsibilities. I have seen so many students struggling like us to get a cheap accommodation and some also stay on the streets. I have a friend who stays on the streets because he does not have a job so he cannot pay his rent and expenses. Since English is not our native language it creates a lot of issues to communicate here. Many come here without IELTS so they face a lot of problems such as they cannot speak to anyone and no one understands their language and it creates a barrier in getting jobs also. Even the Indians check the communication skills of the students. Sometimes we are also exploited by our employers, there are heaps of students who are working under the table since they have financial issues and they will do anything to even get $6 an hour. In the starting the employers did offer only cash jobs to us and we had to do since we did not have much choice then. I started working under one with $7 an hour from 9am in the morning till 7pm in the evening. We kind of blame the Punjabis who came first, they settled here and they created a big problem, Indians are hiring Indians at minimal wage like $6 an hour, we can complain but we don’t want to get into all of that. I think people who are offered cash jobs initially should deny it and not encourage them. There should be done something for the students because in India we are told that jobs are easy, work permit is easy but at the end it is not that easy and clear.
Immigration allows the students to come here and give the visa after taking good amount as fees from us. There are our seniors who studied here and did not get job search visas. Work visas are also being denied to some students and they have to show a managerial position in the firm and they have to provide the certificate. The agents have created a good base and a huge marketing and take a lot from the students by making false promises and then we students come to realise the truth and we suffer.
Abhishek Baral, Kathmandu
I am Student at Ntec. I am living in NZ for about 8 months now. I am working also and getting the minimum wage. But I think job opportunities here are very few and housing is very expensive. Luckily I haven’t gone through any hardship yet but I faced a lot more struggle than I was ready for when I came to New Zealand but I am lucky that unlike many others, my employer treats me well.
But one think I would like to say that I don’t like the NZ education system because some of our tutors don’t teach well. Our courses are of two years and we get visas of only one year and then we have to extend it again by showing funds. The living expenses that we have to show to extend our visas are too much. It is not possible to earn that much money as a student in one year. I would like to suggest that to improve students’ situation, after paying the college fees, they should not be made to show living expenses all over again. A student cannot show $23,000 at one go in their bank account. That’s just too much.
Arshnoor Singh Atwal, Punjab
I am studying at Ntec. I am in NZ from about 9 months now. I don’t have any issues with my job as I am at least getting minimum wage. I am working with current my employer for 8 months now. I get full time work during vacations. So he has been quite good. He has already given me a supervisory position.
But there are other problems like housing is at least $200 per week, which is very steep. I had to borrow $2000 to buy a car to do my job and for my personal transport.
When I first came here, I worked for just 4 days casual job and I had to stand in the same position, holding a banner. That was very difficult. I thought I will be settled within a month, but it took me two-three months to find a footing. Because the living expenses were paid from India initially, it helped me settle down. Otherwise, I would be under many loans by now.
Students’ situation in New Zealand can be improved by eliminating the funds we need to show after paying the fees. These days the immigration does not accept job contracts as funding, but cash in the bank account. This is not fair.
Harjot Singh, Punjab
I am in NZ and in Ntec from 8 months now. I had to struggle a lot to find a job when I arrived here and then, I needed a car. So I needed money and I wasn’t prepared to spend so much. When I had vacations, I had to work on Fridays and Saturdays, 8 hours shift in day-time and 8 hours shift at night-time on the same days. Luckily I am at least getting the minimum wage and good work environment as well, which many students from India don’t get.
I thought I will have a good job and a good living standard. Most of them are fulfilled, but it has not been easy. If I talk about education, when I first arrived here, it was difficult to understand what was being told to us. The accent was very different. But now it is all good. I think when visa is given to students back home, they should be given a month’s training by New Zealanders in English. This should be the responsibility of the college.
Mandira Rimal
I am originally from Nepal and now doing business in business management in NTEC.I am in New Zealand from 8 months. I had to face many problems at the beginning for searching the job as the place was totally new for me and it was totally different from my country as well. Heaps of students from Nepal as well as many other countries were coming here for the study so the opportunities of getting the job was less due to more students. I searched in websites about the job and different other hard works like dropping CV door to door for getting the job. As we know the hard work always success finally I got the interview from burger king and now I am doing part time job in burger king .I am also getting the minimum wages from there with which I can carry out my living expenses now. Every person while going out of country has the high expectations to gain more education and all other things what we don’t get in our home country. My expectations were also too high while I came here but also I didn’t find it that much good as well as I expected. Links and contacts are more important to get job rather than skills and ability to work here as well. Overall my experience here in New Zealand is good now because the main thing is I have become independent coming here but it’s not that much good as I expected. Employers are good and supportive here but in some case the unity of nationality matters because of which sometimes we feel down as well.
( Sources of information : www.enz.govt.nz , www.radionz.co.nz, www.stuff.co.nz, student comments as told by the named students to Leena Pal, Paula Ray and Md Rizwan of Indian Weekeneder)
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