Why Follow the Pied Piper

Why Follow the Pied Piper

Why Follow the Pied Piper

A Book About

South Africans Migrating to New Zealand

Kalpana Chana

Veronica Turner

Copyright © 2018 Kalpana Chana & Veronica Turner

Published by Kalpana Chana & Veronica Turner Publishing at Smashwords

First edition 2018

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without permission from the copyright holder.

The Author has made every effort to trace and acknowledge sources/resources/individuals. In the event that any images/information have been incorrectly attributed or credited, the Author will be pleased to rectify these omissions at the earliest opportunity.

Published by the Author using Reach Publishers’ services,

P O Box 1384, Wandsbeck, South Africa, 3631

Edited by Neville Barber for Reach Publishers

Website: www.reachpublishers.co.za

E-mail: reach@webstorm.co.za

Publishers: Kalpana Chana & Veronica Turner

Cover Design by Red Raven Book Design

Stories can conquer fear, you know.

They can make the heart bigger.

Ben Okri

To all the storytellers who willingly shared their stories to help conquer fear in those embarking on this huge journey of migration to New Zealand

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. For a Smoother Journey, Know the Law

2. Do Your Homework and Don’t Be Afraid to Accept Help

3. Tourist Eyes Don’t Work

4. Life Was a Struggle at the Beginning

5. Get Yourself in the Right Head Space

6. Embrace the Adventure of Life

7. Careful Planning Makes for a Smoother Journey

8. Expect the Unexpected and Believe You Will Make It

9. Baby Steps, Don’t Rush It!

10. Patience and Perseverance are Paramount

11. Let Go of South Africa a little!!

12. Whangerei Stole My Heart but Queenstown Stole My Liver

13. It’s a Safer Way of Life Here

14. A Kiwi Perspective

15. Not Everything is Black and White!

16. Trust That the Kiwis Do Know What They Are Doing!

17. The Feeling of ‘Home’ is Not One You Can Buy

18. Be Strong and Be on the Same Page

19. Ten Truths That Will Make It ‘Oh-So-Worth-It’

References

Introduction

There is something intriguing and maybe even a little romantic about packing your bags and ‘hitting the road’. Maybe it’s the promise of something better out there, the adrenaline rush from being in a place where no one knows who you are, the unpredictability of the future, the limitless possibilities or the simple excitement of waking up to see the sun rise on a foreign city. Whatever it may be, that gets your juices flowing at the idea of moving to a different country like New Zealand, hearing the stories of some who have gone before you may ease some of your anxieties.

When we made our own cross-continental move a good few years back, we were ready for a new start and some adventure. What we failed to anticipate were the days and nights of complete bewilderment, the slow, tedious process of adjustment, and the confusing feelings of being transient.

Be it for a sense of adventure or the sheer need for a better experience of life, humans have, since the beginning of time, migrated from one place to another, sometimes internally but usually from country to country. Their intention has been, and still is, usually to settle temporarily or permanently in the new location in the hope of improving their quality of life. According to BBC – bitesize (www.bbc.co.uk), people often migrate when they feel ‘push and pull factors’. They may be ‘pushed’ from negative living conditions in their own country to find better living conditions where they feel the ‘pull’. The following diagram shows some ‘push and pull factors’:

Most people migrating from South Africa to New Zealand would experience ‘push factors’ such as ‘concerns about safety and security, and high crime rates’. Well, these were the two factors that seem to have pushed our storytellers, with their families, towards New Zealand, which most of them thought had the ‘pull’ factors of:

● a safer environment;

● better service provision, especially in health and education;

● lower crime rates;

● a more attractive and peaceful lifestyle; and

● clean and green living.

The number of South Africans now living in New Zealand has skyrocketed. The 2013 New Zealand census recorded more than 54,000 South African residents. According to Statistics New Zealand (2017), the increase in migrant arrivals from South Africa to New Zealand, between the two March years of 2015 and 2016, was up 1,000 to 2,800. South Africans have tended to settle in a wide variety of locations across their new country. Outside of Auckland, popular domiciles for South Africans are: Bay of Plenty, Hawke’s Bay, Taranaki, Manawatu, Wanganui, Otago and Christchurch, which may have something to do with living where they can find work.

It is often difficult to take large sums of money out of South Africa, so earning an income soon after arriving in New Zealand, appears to be one of the biggest challenges for South African migrants. Median earnings for skilled men is very good, in the region of $50 500 a year, and for skilled women $38 000 or more, depending on their expertise. The good level of income may be the result of the high qualifications they bring with them: 96.5% of migrants have a formal qualification. An issue that may be one of the main contributors to a stressful migration experience is finding a job in their area of qualification, especially when migrants expect this. Perseverance and level-headedness are often required in a persistent search for relevant, meaningful work. Prolonged searches in one’s area of qualification and experience can often lead to personal and family stress, mainly pressured by the fear that their Rands may run out before they are able to start earning dollars.

As you will note in the forthcoming stories, the whole process of migration can be a stressful life event for most people and can impact on one’s health long after it has passed. It is inevitable when moving to a foreign country that you’ll be faced with social and material losses, and new challenges like different climate, new language, unfamiliar customs, and uncertainty about employment, etc. So, preparing yourself by understanding what stress is and having a few coping strategies, might help to make the journey more comfortable.

Stress is something everyone faces in everyday life. Doctors warn against too much of it causing social ills. Stress is practically unavoidable in the fast-paced lifestyle most of us live today. Three elements of any event or experience render it traumatic: repetition, unpredictability and lack of control. You will see in the stories ahead that most of the challenges our storytellers share with us involve these three elements. For example:

● repetitive challenges by difficult people who may not appear compassionate to their situation because of rules that need abiding, can cause anxiety;

● the unpredictability of duration of stay, or of finding accommodation and work, can increase stress, especially among people who arrive with temporary visas intending to convert them to permanent residency; and

● lack of control or having no way of satisfying, in the specified time, the requirements of the application for residency or work visa applications, like application fees, medicals, police clearance, etc. Or, being unable to make further lifestyle plans without knowing the outcome of one’s application.

In this book, we have shared the stories of South African migrants who have experienced a range of challenges in their search for a better life in New Zealand. As far as possible, we have selected stories that highlight different aspects of migrants’ experiences, in the hope that we cover the many possible experiences that you, as a prospective migrant, might face. You will find that the stories do not relay many specific facts and opinions on aspects such as the quality or otherwise of New Zealand’s education system, its hospital services, the public transport system, the police and justice system, entertainment facilities, even the way motorists drive etc. Therefore, after reading this book, you may need to do more research for such facts.

Our intention in sharing these stories is to help you prepare for what may possibly be the biggest, most stressful step in your life and the lives of your loved ones. You will see that most of the challenges new migrants face are psychological. By sharing their stories, we hope that you will prepare yourself to face and overcome, with ease, possible stressful events on your journey. In so doing, we hope that you will enjoy the better quality of life you seek, in good health and in all aspects of your being.

For a Smoother Journey, Know the Law

I was lucky that my son moved to New Zealand and I just came to visit him. Then I changed my mind about going back. So, my case was a little different from that of a person who plans to come here and then migrates. I came to visit and then I decided that I’m not going back. For me, New Zealand felt like the South Africa in which I grew up. So I said, I’m not going back; I’m going to take the chance to see if I can get residency here. I followed my son, who had followed his mother-in-law. That way most of our family ended up here.

It was also the crime rate that persuaded me to consider leaving South Africa. I used to work as the manager of Ackermans. I was robbed twice. The third time I was threatened, not directly but through the staff informing me of what was to come. I was told people were waiting to kill me for the safe key. That was a very scary experience for me. I didn’t want to risk my life, so I resigned from Ackermans.

I later went to live in Villiers, thinking it might be safer because I had family there. My younger son, a qualified chef, had the opportunity to buy what we know in South Africa to be a café. It had games for customers, like pinball and others, a takeaway and a small restaurant, and it sold fishing tackle. I decided to partner him in starting the business, but the partnership was short-lived. He was offered a job opportunity in Witbank. His son needed to go to school the following year; he saw a better future for the boy in Witbank and decided to take the offer, leaving me alone in the shop.

I lived in an apartment at the back of the premises. Customers knew this and, in the middle of the night, would knock on my door, asking to buy things. I’d tell them that the shop was closed, but they knew that I had access to the shop from my flat, so they would insist that I go and get them what they asked for.

I never opened the door. I knew that would be asking for trouble. One day, soon after my son had left, a young customer came into the shop and looked at me with hatred in his eyes. Why didn’t you open the door for me last night? he asked.

I asked, Oh, was that you? 

He yelled, Ja, you know it was me. Why didn’t you open? I was hungry and I wanted bread.

I said, Sorry, the shop was closed at 2 o’clock in the morning. I was sleeping and wasn’t prepared to open for anybody.

Then he said, But you can come into the shop for your bread. Just because of that, I’m taking my bread now and I’m going.

He grabbed the bread and started to walk out without paying. He pointed at me and shouted, YOU! He gestured with his index finger across his throat to indicate that he was going to kill me and walked out. A few days later, my son in New Zealand rang me and I told him what had happened. He said, You know what that means? It means that they know you are by yourself. You must sell that shop and get out.

I said, No, I have invested my pension in this business. I’m over fifty now, I’m not going to get another job.

Then he suggested, Come and visit me and then you can decide what you want to do.

My ex-husband had, for two years, been interested in buying the business, but every time he made an offer, I’d refused to sell. After I spoke to my son, he called his father immediately. Half an hour later, his father was there telling me that he had heard that I was thinking about selling the business. At that point, I decided that I would do as my son advised; I accepted his offer and started making plans to visit New Zealand.

A few weeks later, I arrived in New Zealand. It was 8am when we landed. After a long, exhausting flight, I was very tired. During the drive from the airport, everything looked so clean. There was no rubbish lying around. It was a sunny day and I couldn’t believe my eyes, that there were still