What do 3 degrees, 20 years of overseas experience, and 2 years of current enrollment in New Zealand’s top university get you?
Existence on the Benefit and an ongoing threat of Homelessness.
With over 5000 applications submitted since 2018 and a deep work history overseas, I have received absolutely no job offers in New Zealand – despite my profession being on the Skill Shortage list for decades and being born a citizen of the country.
This isn’t a story about entitlement.
I brought 2 years of savings with me, just in case I got unlucky and it took a while for me to get a job.
This is a case of systemic exclusion through attitudes like Tall Poppy and a “She’ll be right” dismissiveness that goes beyond NIMBY and feeds into a systemic exclusion that affects immigrants and indigenous individuals alike as they come here and discover that hiring is not driven by your merits – it’s driven by who you know – and an immigrant probably knows nobody.
This isn’t just my story. It’s the story of hundreds of qualified people who come here to drive uber, clean toilets, and work other minimum wage jobs long enough to either start their own businesses, or leave.
All the while New Zealand continues to post it’s Skill Shortage list while its recruitment industry behaves like a child that wants a ride to school, but only if it’s in a Lamborghini or a Ferrari.
At what point do you say enough is enough, and call the system out for what it is?
#employment #newzealand #discriminationawareness #publicpolicy #inclusión #diversityandinclusion #jobhunting #resilience
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