Migrant experience: More than one helping hand out there

Chinese migrant Linda Kong looks over plans with her new boss Tony Callis, of AJ Callis, yesterday. Picture / Dean Purcell

A spell of work experience has made all the difference to Linda Kong.

After eight weeks with Mt Wellington fencing contractor AJ Callis, using a broad range of her engineering skills, she has been offered her first fulltime job in New Zealand.

The day the Herald visits is officially Mrs Kong's first day. Her English is heavily accented and she doesn't have the words to explain how ecstatic she is but her gratitude is clear.

Boss Tony Callis makes a gruff-but-pleased noise. As he says later, it's a two-way deal, brokered by the Auckland Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber started a work experience scheme in 2002 to help migrants get over their lack of New Zealand experience. Candidates must be on the dole and are referred by Work and Income, which "pays" them while they have work experience.

"We're talking about people who might have been out of work in their professions for nine years," says Leah Gates, the chamber's special projects manager.

Local work experience on a CV proves that someone has had faith, she says; someone else has done the work of checking a migrant's competence. "That gets over an enormous hurdle."

Mrs Kong, 45, of Epsom, has a civil engineering degree from her native China but has been occupied raising two children since coming to New Zealand a decade ago.

When she sought work, her basic and heavily accented English and lack of local experience saw her rebuffed time and again, although she had studied the Building Code and learned broader skills suitable for smaller businesses.

By the time she was referred to the work experience programme, she was dispirited.

Tony Callis had been seeking an assistant engineer for some time - unsuccessfully "because the wages are so abysmal" and the market tight - when he saw a description in a chamber flier.

"Linda," it read. "Position: structural draughtsperson/civil engineer. Competent in structural drawing, good knowledge of NZ Code 3604, highly skilled in AutoCad. Substantial overseas experience in civil engineering, building appraisal, structural design and drawing ..."

Mr Callis had taken someone from the work experience programme before and it was, he says, "a disaster" with the person's skills not matching his claims. But it hadn't cost anything.

He interviewed Mrs Kong and decided to take a punt. "Obviously they [migrants] are talented people, and six to eight weeks gives time for you to work out what they can do."

Mrs Kong's English can be "a big problem", he admits. It's part of the deal that she continues to improve. Her skills, he says, are not in doubt, nor her conscientious approach to work: "attitude is everything".

Leah Gates agrees and warns that migrants who don't make a conscious effort to improve their English while seeking work might find their prospects deteriorate.

Sometimes the language problem is about style, says Equal Employment Opportunities Trust head Dr Philippa Reed. She says those used to formal, hierarchical workplaces - like many from India - can come across to Kiwis as "snooty".

On the flip side, some immigrants have difficulty with our generally more informal office etiquette, says Immigration Service research manager Stephen Dunstan, especially those from more "command and control" workplaces where, say, you would never address somebody by first name.

"They don't always understand that they need to adapt the way they work," he says.

"They ... don't realise the degree of difference and that if we went to Asia we would have to adapt to expectations and norms of other workplaces."

The Herald asked Dr Reed's opinion on a letter from a migrant, in which he indignantly related that he had been asked to write sample paragraphs in an interview "to prove to them that I could write well in English".

Dr Reed says this is not an unfair request. CVs are easily polished by a third party and qualifications can be, and are, faked: "I don't think it is bad practice for a potential employer to check these things out."

Migrants who don't plan their job hunt strategically also make things harder for themselves, says Dr Reed. Some migrants, desperate to get a foot in any door, target jobs for which they are overqualified: why would an employer want to give a job to someone who would prefer to be elsewhere?

"People get dispirited and start casting their CVs far and wide," she says, "and not actually tailoring and looking for the position where they are going to be the best candidate."

Networking might feel alien to migrants used to finding their jobs in newspapers, but they have to get to grips with informal networking as a route to word-of-mouth jobs, says Ms Gates. And that means professional associations and industry conferences rather than ethnic groups.

"But don't underestimate boards of trustees, sports groups, church groups, and conversation with the next-door neighbour ... you would be amazed the number of migrants I know who have been here three years and can't name a single Kiwi friend."

Selling yourself is "hard and that takes courage. But it's where 70 or 80 per cent of them will get jobs."

Migrants also need to understand that in a country of small businesses, general skills are often more valuable than the narrowly-focused. Migrants need to identify transferable skills and highlight them.

Colin Matheson, of Alpha Recruitment, says what recruiters want is a demonstration of how someone's skills are relevant. Migrants with heavy accents, he says, also need to be realistic about whether they will be understood in a frontline role and consider using their skills in a position where customer interaction is less important.

But migrants who feel they are being fobbed off have options, says Jacqui Barratt, the president of the Recruitment and Consulting Services Association.

If the phrase "lack of New Zealand experience" arises, she says, ask these questions: what New Zealand experience is required? What should I do to get it? What skills do I need to develop?

Migrants can make complaints about members to the association's ethics committee if they sense discrimination, she says, with an email to the address below.

The Human Rights Commission's Equal Employment Opportunities commissioner, Judy McGregor, adds that migrants told they would not "fit" an office should "challenge by demanding to know what's meant".

The commission investigates discrimination allegations on the 13 grounds laid out in the Human Rights Act, which bans prejudicial treatment for, among others, reasons of colour, race and national origin.

The commission also has - its fledgling Diversity in Business programme, in which it works with employers who want to get to grips with diversity issues.

Companies can approach the commission seeking help to create what race and ethnic relations manager Samuelu Sefuiva calls a "cultural diversity framework", or simply for advice on solving practical problems.

The commission is also home to the Equal Employment Opportunities Unit. Equal opportunities is, in theory, about being fair and just.

It's a legislative requirement in the public service, some of the state sector, and for local government - but not in the private sector. As the unit's 2004 report Framework for the Future reports, despite the rhetoric that New Zealand as a country believes in social justice, the reality is different.

Chamber head Michael Barnett is more scathing, saying New Zealanders don't always give migrants the "fair go" trumpeted as a national characteristic.

"I think there are a whole lot of myths about New Zealanders - we say a lot of the right things, but when it comes to doing some of the right things, we are not the world's fastest adopters."

The authors, Auckland University researchers Michael Mintrom and Jacqui True, say there is a "tendency for people to grudgingly take minimal formal steps towards adopting EEO policies".

But "they do little to change their day-to-day practices and habits of mind."

However, research shows positive relationships between EEO policies and business performance.

It's not just about avoiding prosecution, they say: it's about making sure the talent pool is as large as possible and businesses capable of responding to a diverse market.