upnorthkyosa
20th June 2007, 03:59 AM
Hi everyone
Sorry for the somewhat pessimistic tone of this post. This is nothing but pragmatic thinking on the part of myself and my wife though. We are still committed to emmigrating to New Zealand, but it's turning out to be a longer process then we thought it would be.
Here are some of the reasons why and I hope that this thread will help other migrants...
1. Debt. The United States' economy is basically predicated on the fact that you need to go into debt in order to participate. My wife and I both came from a lower SES so we didn't have much to start with. Thus the cost of our education, housaing, and transportation really racked up. We need to pay down as much of this debt as we can before we go to NZ because the weaker dollar would multiply the amount we have making it harder for us to live over there.
2. Lower salaries. This is related to the point above. In NZ, our salaries as teachers will be lower then they are here. There are many reasons for this, but the bottom line is that when we planned out our financial needs over there with our current expenses, including debt, we realized that we just couldn't pick up and go tomorrow.
3. Paperwork. There is an incredible amount of paperwork that one needs to do in order to emmigrate properly. This process can literally take 1.5 years from start to finish. My wife and I are completing the paperwork peice by peice in a nice orderly fashion so that it doesn't stress us out and so we don't make any mistakes.
4. Experience. Both my wife and I are teachers and we are fairly new in our careers. From my conversations with Principals over in NZ, its become apparent to me that more experience in our current jobs will give us a better chance of getting good jobs over there. Also, the way teaching salaries are calculated over in NZ, overseas teaching experience is counted on a 2/1 ratio. For every two years you have teaching in another country, it counts for one year on NZ's teacher salary table. Spending a few more years in the States will help us become more marketable and will help us make more money when we finally do come over.
5. Kiwi Experience. My wife and I fell in love with this country from stories, pictures, and books. We've always wanted to move somewhere overseas to give our family an experience of a lifetime and our hours and hours of homework always brought us back to NZ. Up until now, we've never been in a financial position where we have actually been able to afford a trip to NZ. This presents a problem because the dream that we built in our minds just might be different from what we actually experience. The bottom line is that we are planning two trips to NZ in the next three years. One where just my wife and I go and one where we take the entire family. Since we are teachers and fairly frugal, we are planning spending and extended amount of time on Kiwi soil when we go in order to really get the feel for the place.
The second part of this point is that Kiwi Experience really counts when it comes to finding a good job in NZ. This is a double edged sword for most migrants because its just impossible to be in two places at once. So, some decent proxies have to be rooted out in order to be somewhat marketable over there. My wife and I figure that the best we can do in the Kiwi Experience catagory is the following: learn as much as we can about NZ, get as much experience on the ground as we can, and network with as many people in NZ as we can. All of this won't double for actually living and working in NZ, but it will give us a step up over those who have done nothing...and that's probably the best we can do now.
Anyways, hopefully this is some good information for people considering migrating. I know everyone's circumstances are different, so it's not going to apply to everyone. Let us know what you think and let us know if and why you are having a similar experience to us.
Thanks in advance...
Sorry for the somewhat pessimistic tone of this post. This is nothing but pragmatic thinking on the part of myself and my wife though. We are still committed to emmigrating to New Zealand, but it's turning out to be a longer process then we thought it would be.
Here are some of the reasons why and I hope that this thread will help other migrants...
1. Debt. The United States' economy is basically predicated on the fact that you need to go into debt in order to participate. My wife and I both came from a lower SES so we didn't have much to start with. Thus the cost of our education, housaing, and transportation really racked up. We need to pay down as much of this debt as we can before we go to NZ because the weaker dollar would multiply the amount we have making it harder for us to live over there.
2. Lower salaries. This is related to the point above. In NZ, our salaries as teachers will be lower then they are here. There are many reasons for this, but the bottom line is that when we planned out our financial needs over there with our current expenses, including debt, we realized that we just couldn't pick up and go tomorrow.
3. Paperwork. There is an incredible amount of paperwork that one needs to do in order to emmigrate properly. This process can literally take 1.5 years from start to finish. My wife and I are completing the paperwork peice by peice in a nice orderly fashion so that it doesn't stress us out and so we don't make any mistakes.
4. Experience. Both my wife and I are teachers and we are fairly new in our careers. From my conversations with Principals over in NZ, its become apparent to me that more experience in our current jobs will give us a better chance of getting good jobs over there. Also, the way teaching salaries are calculated over in NZ, overseas teaching experience is counted on a 2/1 ratio. For every two years you have teaching in another country, it counts for one year on NZ's teacher salary table. Spending a few more years in the States will help us become more marketable and will help us make more money when we finally do come over.
5. Kiwi Experience. My wife and I fell in love with this country from stories, pictures, and books. We've always wanted to move somewhere overseas to give our family an experience of a lifetime and our hours and hours of homework always brought us back to NZ. Up until now, we've never been in a financial position where we have actually been able to afford a trip to NZ. This presents a problem because the dream that we built in our minds just might be different from what we actually experience. The bottom line is that we are planning two trips to NZ in the next three years. One where just my wife and I go and one where we take the entire family. Since we are teachers and fairly frugal, we are planning spending and extended amount of time on Kiwi soil when we go in order to really get the feel for the place.
The second part of this point is that Kiwi Experience really counts when it comes to finding a good job in NZ. This is a double edged sword for most migrants because its just impossible to be in two places at once. So, some decent proxies have to be rooted out in order to be somewhat marketable over there. My wife and I figure that the best we can do in the Kiwi Experience catagory is the following: learn as much as we can about NZ, get as much experience on the ground as we can, and network with as many people in NZ as we can. All of this won't double for actually living and working in NZ, but it will give us a step up over those who have done nothing...and that's probably the best we can do now.
Anyways, hopefully this is some good information for people considering migrating. I know everyone's circumstances are different, so it's not going to apply to everyone. Let us know what you think and let us know if and why you are having a similar experience to us.
Thanks in advance...