Image: Tina Tiller
Image: Tina Tiller

Coming HomeDecember 8, 2020

Coming Home: For many returning New Zealanders, it’s been a bumpy landing

Staff writers
Image: Tina Tiller
Image: Tina Tiller

In part four of Coming Home, hosts Duncan Greive and Jane Yee find out what returning to New Zealand this year was like – and why it didn’t always go as smoothly as anticipated.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you usually listen to podcasts.

Everyone we spoke to for this episode had a very different experience of moving back to New Zealand this year, but they all had one thing in common. In every case, the landing back into New Zealand society was quite a bit bumpier than expected, on both an emotional and professional level. 

Part of that was to do with the heightened sense of fear and uncertainty brought on by the pandemic. Jane’s family arrived back before the introduction of managed isolation, and anticipated being welcomed back with open arms – instead they were met with hostility from a community understandably fearful of anyone who might be carrying the virus.

Since then, tens of thousands of New Zealanders have had the experience of returning to two weeks of mandatory managed isolation. Some were able to put a positive spin on it – Mahoney Turnbull compared it to a two-week meditation retreat – while others found it more of a mental struggle.

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    But for many the biggest challenge has come from readjusting to the culture here, especially in a work setting. “I miss the freedom to be myself,” says Julia Arnott-Neenee, who came back from the US buzzing to explore new opportunities. “I’ve felt like I’ve had to shrink myself to fit in here”.

    What does all this say about us as a country – and about those who’re returning to find the reality doesn’t necessarily match their expectations?

    Coming Home is brought to you by The Spinoff and Kiwibank. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you usually listen to podcasts.

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    Image: Alice Webb-Liddall
    Image: Alice Webb-Liddall

    Coming HomeDecember 1, 2020

    Coming Home: The push and pull bringing New Zealanders back from overseas

    Staff writers
    Image: Alice Webb-Liddall
    Image: Alice Webb-Liddall

    In the third part of Coming Home, hosts Duncan Greive and Jane Yee talk to recently returned New Zealanders about the different factors that brought them home this year.

    Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you usually listen to podcasts.

    We’ve heard a lot so far about the factors that have for decades driven New Zealanders to live and work overseas – including the strong magnetic pull of the big city. But this year, with the pandemic, subsequent lockdowns and economic and political uncertainty, it was almost like the polarity of that magnetism reversed.

    So what were the factors that led so many New Zealanders with established lives and careers in other countries to decide to come home? Was it push or pull – or a bit of both?

    For blockchain entrepreneur Mahoney Turnbull it was mostly push – being laid off from her job in San Francisco during a wave of Covid-19-related redundancies had grave implications for her visa status and health insurance. For editor Rachel Morris, it was a bit of both, with a job in New Zealand forcing her to reconsider her life in the US, and where she ultimately wanted to live.

    Others, like HP strategist Julia Arnott-Neenee and top chef Peter Gordon, felt a pull to return. For Julia it was to co-found People For People, a social enterprise with a goal to bring more Pacific people into tech. For Peter, who had been based in London for more than three decades, it was time to set up his new restaurant and cooking school Homeland.

    Their energy and motivation for starting these projects is invaluable to New Zealand, and hints that not only can we make it out of this bad year, but, if we handle this right – we could even end up better off.

    Coming Home is brought to you by The Spinoff and Kiwibank. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you usually listen to podcasts.