HOT TOPIC: Migrants in the New Zealand workforce

After the recent EPICNZ (Ethnic People in Commerce) Conference in Auckland the conversation about migrants in the workforce has been highlighted in a number of ways. Here four experts share their comments and feedback on this hot topic.
By Michael Richardson
www.aut.ac.nz

The Entrepreneur
Dorin Ranee, Creative Director, Studio81
Starting a business is challenging and more so in a foreign environment where the culture and values are different. When I started this makeup and photography business in 2008 my biggest fear was marketing myself as an Asian. I was afraid to communicate with the local Kiwis in fear of being misunderstood and judged. As part of my business plan I landed a job as a counter manager for an international cosmetic brand. For a year I was communicating and selling to a large base of non-ethnic people and my confidence grew.
It is important not to short-change yourself by falling into the pit of stereotypes. I feel that it works both ways, as much as New Zealand has to embrace migrants for economic advancement, ethnic people in commerce should also step out and embrace New Zealand. It is about adding essence to community and not making less of who we are.
www.studio81.co.nz
 
The CEO
Justin Treagus, CEO OMEGA Talent for Auckland
There are strong economic drivers for cultural integration in New Zealand. Not only does diversity create value, innovation and growth it is also linked to business productivity. Moreover, there are two pressing reasons why we need to up our game welcoming other cultures to this country and making better use of new talented migrants we already have.
Firstly, the skilled migrants invited to New Zealand are not here to take Kiwi jobs, they are here to support economic growth, which will create Kiwi jobs by bringing skills that are short in supply locally and globally. They bring skills that 84% of Kiwi businesses are struggling to find today.
Secondly, our ability to develop capability to trade with the emerging favourable and stronger markets such as China and India will determine how we build our domestic economy to compete internationally. The key to achieving this is building connections, networks and relationships within our local multicultural environment that will better connect us with economies of the future.
www.omega.org.nz

The Second-Generation Migrant
Giles Brooker, Chairman, Giles Brooker Group
Migrants in every country have the strongest drive to survive. Cut off from traditional community sources of comfort and strength and facing hidden (and sometimes not very well-hidden) resistance from their new country, it’s do or die! These are the very issues that New Zealand faces. Fortunately the migrant community has developed the skills to help us. And despite some of our earlier efforts to encourage them to assimilate and lose their identities, they have retained the networks that can now serve us so well in understanding and dealing with new markets. Migrants want New Zealand to be successful in ways that also return benefits to their home communities.
I think the challenge for our bigger enterprises is to learn to work with migrants and their communities rather than trying to absorb and assimilate them into the corporate world. Find ways to respect and support the independence of the communities, learn to trust and value their contribution and find ways to develop trading relationships that are two-way streets. We should see our economy growing through relationships that benefit others as much as they benefit ourselves.
Giles Brooker Group is developing collaborative trading relationships between India, Singapore and New Zealand. As a second-generation migrant I have re-energised my parents’ historical connections with India and linked with more recent migrants and colleagues within India to quickly develop strong and valuable networks.
www.gbeducaton.in
 
The Politician
Melissa Lee, National MP
Asia is going to play a significantly larger role in New Zealand’s future. Especially now with the European economies ailing and facing a long road to recovery Asia's growing and emerging economies are going to play a major role in shaping New Zealand’s place on the world economic map. China and India are the most populous nations in the world. Between them they outnumber the total population of the next eight largest populated countries put together, and then some.
Indonesia is the fourth largest country with 245 million people, and is growing at a rate of 6 per cent. It has an ever growing middle class and increasing urbanisation, and New Zealand must place itself to meet the hungry demand of a market which is roughly 60 times the size of New Zealand. Imagine a customer base 60 times what we have in New Zealand. And Indonesia is just one country emerging out of Asia. I can only sit in awe of the sheer size of the growing potential this has for New Zealand, a country run by mostly small and medium sized enterprises. To date, 97 percent of New Zealand businesses are classified as SMEs. Ethnic and migrant businesses make up a significant proportion of this SME sector.
Building capacity in ethnic SMEs will help unlock the potential to build a more productive and competitive economy, as ethnic businesses hold one of the keys to create jobs, improve New Zealand's trade opportunities, and increase access to the Asia Pacific markets.
Ethnic businesses have the cultural expertise, business acumen and international experience New Zealand businesses need. Their connections and knowledge of business practices in Asia could mean New Zealand is better placed to secure deals faster, placing us ahead of our competitors. This could be the difference between success and failure.
www.melissalee.co.nz
 
A first hand account of the conference from Michael Richardson, Industry and Community Relationship Manager, AUT University
 
Business success comes from a combination of number 8 wire, gumboots and ethnic diversity.
 
This May I attended the 2012 EPICNZ Conference organised by the Office of Ethnic Affairs. The conference provided knowledge and networking opportunities to help motivate and educate New Zealand ethnic SMEs to reach their true potential.
The conference was nothing short of inspiring for me. The highlight was a plenary session on successful migrants, featuring those who had come to New Zealand and developed innovative and highly successful businesses using a combination of local opportunities and an ethnically diverse workforce.
The migrant business people presenting became successful by employing an ethnically diverse workforce and the global thinking they brought from their country of birth; they then combined these ideas with what we do best in New Zealand ‑ innovative and proactive business practices. Their success was attributed to being migrants and utilising the best resources available to them here in New Zealand.
They attributed their success to applying both Kiwi and migrant thinking towards their businesses and partly by employing or contracting a diverse workforce. They built robust, strident and adaptable businesses by combining their global talents with New Zealand’s corruption-free and relatively stable economic environment to make successes of their businesses.
The message I took away from the conference is that New Zealand’s survival is dependent on embracing ethnic and cultural diversity and combining this with our own Kiwi work practices. New Zealand is small and somewhat isolated, but we have great natural resources, a terrific history of innovation and we punch way above our weight. Let’s continue doing what we do best, while embracing an ethnically diverse workforce, which will allow us to unlock our potential and achieve economic success.
Come on Kiwis, our evolution depends on how we adapt to cultural diversity so let’s accept that we need ideas generated from different ethnic backgrounds to survive and flourish!
 
Michael Richardson
www.aut.ac.nz