Kiwi, please come home

Steve Patterson is kicking himself after coming back from Melbourne to a big pay cut. Picture / Greg Bowker

Members of the New Zealand diaspora tell two starkly different stories. Those who tell one story may be amenable to attempts to lure them home. But those who tell the other may be lost forever.

One version is the familiar tale of adventure and self-development. The young person from Kawerau or Kaikohe, freshly educated and with perhaps a couple of years' work experience, flies off to Sydney, Hong Kong or London to see the world and perhaps make their fortune.

They may come home, but even if they don't they will remember New Zealand fondly. They may be susceptible to the campaign Immigration Minister Paul Swain signalled this week to tell them about our "booming" economy and the opportunities it offers to bring their skills back.

"We need them home," the minister said. He hopes to use families here - particularly grandparents - to encourage their offspring to return.

But there is another story being told now by many who have left New Zealand, and it is not so heartwarming. Some expatriates feel that they have been pushed as well as pulled to leave home - by financial necessity.

Qualified graduates laden with debts, skilled migrants who can't find work here and families who simply struggle to make ends meet on Kiwi wages are leaving with bitter memories. Many want to put this country behind them for good.

We tapped into their stories by putting six questions at the bottom of the web edition of the Herald report on Swain's plans and related reports this week, asking expatriate readers to email us their responses. We had to pull the questions 24 hours later after we were swamped by almost 200 emails from 23 countries and ran out of time to read any more.

The first question was, "How long have you been overseas?" Richard Griffin emailed back: "Actually have just returned."

He is an information technology (IT) contractor, just back after four and a half years, most recently in Switzerland where he met his German wife, Stephanie. They have both landed IT contracts in Auckland paying around $60 an hour, rented an apartment near Newmarket and are looking to buy a house.

Their IT skills and families on two continents make them footloose global citizens - just the kind Swain hopes to lure. They expect to stay here three to five years, then go back to Europe for a few years to be close to Stephanie's parents.

Richard catches a train into central Auckland and is frustrated that some days it runs 20 minutes late. In his email, he said: "Public transport in Auckland is a major reason why we are already considering leaving again."