coming home feature

Coming HomeDecember 15, 2020

Coming Home: If we want returning New Zealanders to stay, we need a plan

Staff writers
coming home feature

In the final part of Coming Home, hosts Duncan Greive and Jane Yee ask what can be done to keep returning New Zealanders on our shores post-pandemic.

Over the first four episodes of Coming Home we’ve heard about what’s been pushing New Zealanders to live and work overseas for decades, and what pulled so many of them back home in 2020. In the final episode of the series, it’s time to ask: how do we keep all the talent here now that it’s back?

“There will be a lot of buggering off,” warns demographer Paul Spoonley, if we don’t start doing a lot more to keep highly skilled New Zealanders in the coming months and years. While a re-exodus is inevitable to some extent once the current pandemic dies down overseas, there’s still plenty more we could be doing to make the most of this opportunity.

Play our cards right and we could fill labour shortages, innovate our industries and put New Zealand on the world stage. But to do this will require some thinking outside the box from both employers and the government. This is one situation where playing it safe could do more harm than good.

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: 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.

    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.