Rejection a way of life for skilled newcomers

New Zealand offers them a home - but work is a different story. CATHERINE MASTERS talks to four well-qualified immigrants still seeking the promised land.

Between them, the four new immigrants have applied for nearly 700 jobs.

Three have university degrees and all have a wealth of experience in their professions. But their stacks of rejection letters just get bigger.

They are either over-qualified or they do not have the "Kiwi" experience needed for the job. So these fluent but strongly accented English speakers offer their time free to get the experience, only to be told the company does not do that kind of thing.

One was refused a job because the $16 an hour pay was "too low" for someone so qualified. Another was refused a job valet parking because other applicants were more qualified.

It does not matter what they do to convince a prospective employer to give them a chance, the goalposts will shift and they will be fobbed off over and over.

When asked if the Herald could take their photograph, the quartet become alarmed and decline to be identified. When asked if their names can be used, their answer is the same.

"There are a lot of sensitive issues out there," says the white South African freight forwarder. "A lot of New Zealanders are not aware ... It's really an indictment on this country. I have been rejected so many times."

Says the young Indian homoeopathic doctor and computer expert: "It's because we are scared."

And the black Zimbabwean with a master's degree and 18 years in banking: "It could jeopardise our future chances."

These three try to make ends meet by working for a telemarketing firm where the pay is low and they have to try to convince strangers at the other end of the phone to buy a piece of a timeshare, or to accept an appointment on behalf of someone else who wants to sell a mortgage.

Often they are sworn at and abused by people who tell them to go back home.

Most of the 20 workers at the telemarketing company are immigrants and if they do not meet their weekly targets theywill lose even this job.

The fourth immigrant is an Indian woman, a qualified English teacher, who came here to be with her family but cannot get a job.

All four know other highly qualified immigrants who work as checkout operators and cleaners.

It is a situation immigrants have complained about to the Herald for years, but even though migrants are allowed to come here - in the last financial year 45,011 people were granted permanent residency - they are never warned they may not be able to get a job.

The Government announced a few weeks ago that the number of skilled migrants into New Zealand will rise by 3500 to 33,200 a year.

Attracting talented people is also part of its new "innovation framework" policy, which aims to lift the country's economic performance.

These four came here for a better life and, aside from not getting work, have no complaints about their new country.

"I love it," says the Zimbabwean who wanted to further his career and leave his tumultuous homeland behind.

"New Zealanders are great people. They have been so kind."

He cannot understand why he has had so many rejections when he has so much experience in banks, from the bottom to senior management: "Banking is banking. You put money in and you take money out."

But in New Zealand, employers will not even give immigrants the latitude to start at the bottom again, he says.

The Indians, who are not related, are Christians and this is not acceptable in India, they say. Both sold everything to come here but are fast running out of money and may have to go on benefits, a thought all four find abhorrent and demeaning. They came here to work.

"We don't want any sort of dole," said the woman.

"We don't want any sort of pity. What we would appreciate is an opportunity."

If the country is prepared to let them in, she says, the business world should be prepared to give them jobs.

The South African is astounded by the Government's call for more skilled migrants.

"Do they really need more telemarketers?" he asks.

The four collapse laughing, but it is as much in despair as amusement.