Migrants learn to be Kiwi at expo

By ALAN PERROTT

About 10,000 newly branded New Zealanders trooped through Greenlane at the weekend for a two-day beginners' guide to becoming a Kiwi.

One of the earliest clues came courtesy of the orange-jacketed gentlemen running the car park. "Oooo, no. You can't park there mate, you can't park there at all."

Those who made it inside were at least greeted with an airy "gidday".

The visitors came from around the world, but were all at the Migrant Expo at Alexandra Park Raceway chasing the same aims: a home, education for the kids and, most of all, a job.

It was a daunting project to assemble, said organiser Tina Raines, one of the people behind the Migrant News newspaper that has run the event for the past two years.

"Nobody else around here could have done what we have done," said the former Singaporean.

"But there is a real need for these events now; migrants are crying out for the information they can get here.

"They want to know about schools, they want to know about how they can get a loan for a home, they want to know how they can fit into their new country.

"But we are trying to show them they can't expect everything to be offered on a plate; you have to work to better yourself."

The ASB Bank-sponsored expo attracted about 70 exhibitors covering everything from legal advice to health information and the road code.

Elena Mead, 24, from central Russia, was looking for advice on resuming her career as a civic engineer. The new mum has been in NZ for two years, "but I am still looking for work. It's not easy at all", she said.

Fazlan, a 31-year-old from Malaysia, was also frustrated at the difficulty of finding a job.

"I heard about jobs, then when I came here there's no job at all."

If some of the migrants were finding settling in tough, the expo was good news for local businesses.

AMES Training and Resource Centre sales and marketing co-ordinator Brian Osborne said the event delivered as much interest their way in the first two hours as they got in a day at most other shows.