Challenges of Being a Migrant Prepared by Melinda Tan

Challenges of Being a Migrant Prepared by Melinda Tan

Is there discrimination when it comes to finding employment for a new migrant? I believe so.

When I first started looking for a job in Auckland, I found it hard to get past the CV stage. I was applying to various jobs and sending my CVs to employers and recruitment companies with no joy.

My break came when I actually walked into a recruitment company and spoke face-to-face to a consultant. Once he was assured that I could communicate well in English, only then did he consider me for a formal interview. In that interview, I took a chance and boldly asked him to hire me as his assistant, rather than just for a temporary job. He said he’ll think about it and the next day, I was called in for another interview with the owner of the company.

I was hired the following day as was given the responsibility of finding people for jobs. What a turn of events!

From my experience as a recruitment consultant, I’ve learnt that people with non-English surnames usually get stereotyped. I believe that is what happened to me when I first started looking for jobs. I think most employers put my CV on the ‘maybe’ file because I have a Chinese surname, and assume that I have poor English.

But I don’t blame those employers.

Working in the recruitment company, I have seen lots of CVs sent to me by Asian applicants with poor spelling and writing skills. I tried to be gracious and looked beyond the CVs to actually calling some of these applicants. Unfortunately, more often than not, these applicants had even poorer speaking skills. So, you can see why it’s easy for employers to assume that we would have poor English communication skills.

 I believe that if we want to be successful in an English-speaking country, we must have a level of English where the natives can at least understand and communicate with us easily. Unless you’re looking for work in a non-English speaking environment, it is essential that we can speak and write in English well. Sometimes our accent can also hurt our chances of getting a job.

So, if you are one of the many who are struggling with getting a job, first, make sure you improve your English. Get as much practice as you can in speaking the language; you can volunteer in different community services or speak to your English speaking neighbours and friends. You can also enroll into English language courses or specialised courses to help you with your pronunciation and accent.

Phlair International College (a subsidary of Alphacrucis) offers ESOL courses that qualify for student loans and allowances, as well as migrant funding.

The College also runs a specialised Spoken English course that is fully funded by the government that focuses on helping migrants with their pronunciation. If you already have a reasonable level of English, you may also want to enrol in a vocational course to help you adapt the training and skills that you have gained from your home country to the New Zealand work environment.

Phlair is NZQA registered and located in 60 Rockfield Road, Penrose. For more information about the programmes offered at Phlair, please call 09-580 1500.