Migrant experience: Success stories changing minds

Bax Globals' Sonia Sun and Reinhold Goeschl. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

Human beings tend to seek out and employ those they think are like themselves. Research also shows that employers let their judgment of individuals be coloured by impressions of a migrant's native land and its standard of living - notions which can be gleaned from films and gossip.

Psychologist Kim Coates delved into selection bias for her Massey University masters degree in 2003. England was seen as having a similar standard of living to here, so British migrants fared well.

India, China and the Pacific Islands in particular were perceived as offering poorer standards of living, producing negative attitudes likely to work against the job-seeker.

Yet within these countries, says Mrs Coates, of Momentum Consulting in Wellington, there are large middle classes full of educated, skilled people.

"We operate on incomplete information about countries and other standards of living," she says. "A way forward through that is to be better informed, to be trained, to be aware of our own biases."

If that's changing, she says, it's because labour shortages are forcing bosses to look outside their usual sources of labour.

"You have to have an open mind and not be inclined to make decisions based on what you think you know about a person based on what they look like ... but to check it out thoroughly," she says.

Auckland Chamber of Commerce's Leah Gates agrees. "New Zealand employers, rightfully or wrongfully, look at someone whose name is different and who has not worked in New Zealand and make assumptions about their English language level. They do that because there is an intolerance in New Zealand of people who speak with accents or speak English as a second language. We are almost entirely monolingual and so as a culture we are intolerant [of others' English]."

Education and experience is the key to changing that. "It's experiential stuff," says Philippa Reed, head of the Equal Employment Opportunities Trust. "One of the great pluses of New Zealand is the traditional overseas experience - people who go out and see that there's a whole lot of difference out there that they have to deal with."

But, she sighs, "If I knew the magic bullet [for combating prejudice] I'd use it. I quite often use the example of food. It's quite easy to welcome diversity in the range of foods and restaurants out there but when anything touches on your personal values that becomes a lot harder."

Some, she says, greet the unfamiliar as threatening

What changes minds most effectively, says Dr Reed, are success stories involving migrant labour.

The trust, which works with companies to make the most of New Zealand's diverse talent, trumpets the best examples in its annual Work and Life Awards. Last year accountancy firm Deloitte, recruiters KC Temps, IT company Oxygen Business Solutions, Buller District Council and Taupo chartered accountants DPA & Associates all received gongs for telling good stories.

And here's another good story: the Auckland Chamber of Commerce website, New Kiwis (see link below) that lists the skills of (screened) new migrants.

Willie Wu, performance development manager at Mangere transport company Bax Global, needed a claims officer. Having seen publicity for the four-year-old service - free and no-obligation - Mr Wu gave it a try. He ended up with Sonia Sun's CV, which included an economics degree and 10 years' experience as a shipping company sales representative in her native China.

Miss Sun, 33, arrived alone in New Zealand in November 2003, seeking a different lifestyle in "a beautiful country". She was rebuffed by two agencies, which said they had no work.

She did some New Zealand-specific work search courses at the Auckland Regional Migrant Resource Centre, which referred her to New Kiwis.

Via a phone interview, Mr Wu confirmed Miss Sun's English skills. The day after being interviewed, Ms Sun joined Bax Global's 140 New Zealand staff, where immigrants - from places as diverse as South Africa, India and Fiji - number roughly 10 per cent.

She is the 1000th person placed through New Kiwis. That was over a year ago, and four months after her arrival: "I think I was quite lucky," she says.

However, she adds, an upbeat attitude helps.

The fact that Bax managing director Reinhold Goeschl and Wu are both migrants - Mr Goeschl from Austria 17 years ago and Mr Wu from Hong Kong 13 years ago - doesn't make them soft touches.

"We are looking for the best people, whoever they are, wherever they come from," says Mr Goeschl. If they need some support and training, they'll get it.

A Mandarin speaker, Miss Sun's English is careful and clear but she's still learning informal English: "In China, you study so-called standard English - but after you arrive here it's completely different."

Mr Goeschl, like many other employers interviewed for this series, says poor migrant English is a major stumbling block.

Having said that, a strong accent, he says, is "a secondary consideration" if the fundamentals are sound.

Mr Wu says people at risk of being misunderstood should be in back-office rather than front-line roles.

Still, intractable racism exists. A study done for the EEO Trust by researcher Janice Burns spoke to 243 recruiters and found that older people, people with a non-New Zealand accent and those from another culture were most likely to be dealt with unfairly.

It also contained this admission: "I would say that 75 per cent of the clients we deal with discriminate when they describe what they want in an employee.

"Because the client pays us to find that employee, we in turn have to discriminate every day. It is morally and ethically against our views, but the bottom line is the company's needs."

That depends whether you put values above income, says Colin Matheson, managing director of Alpha Recruitment.

He dealt with a prejudiced client company by sacking it.

So what do bosses want in migrant workers? That they suppress their culture and adopt local mores, says Karen Mace, who asked 20 New Zealand recruiters what acculturation style they would prefer skilled immigrants to adopt.

The research, for her masters in psychology, found that the majority - 55 per cent - felt that migrants should adopt New Zealand culture (language, food, activities, local friendships and the like), but keep their own cultural practices.

A substantial number - 45 per cent - reckoned migrants should adopt local culture but minimise their own.