Pandemic effect: New Zealand has repatriated thousands of skilled workers and is now wondering if this will last

WELLINGTON.- Like many New Zealanders before her, Cat Moody sought to broaden her horizons by moving abroad, unsure whether she would ever return to her home country, which seemed remote and limited to her.. But the pandemic came “and upset all calculations” of what Cat valued most.

Suddenly, the clean air, natural landscapes and low population density took on a renewed appeal, as did the sense of security of a country which, with its strict restrictions, has almost completely defeated Covid-19.

Cat is 42 years old and in February she left her home and the life she had built in New Jersey, United States, to return to New Zealand with her husband, an American citizen. Cat is one of more than 50,000 New Zealanders who returned in droves during the pandemic, a rare opportunity for New Zealand to win back some of its talented children scattered around the world.

With this unexpected flow of returnees with international experience and connections, New Zealand media is already heralding a renaissance of society and industry. Policymakers urge business owners to capitalize on the “fundamental competitive advantage” that comes from being a successful country in the fight against the coronavirus.

The big question is how long will this lead last. New Zealand may look like a progressive paradise from the outside, but returnees face some of the same pressures that encouraged their departure, such as astronomical house prices, a widespread wage gap and a very long employment horizon. limit..

Because of this and other factors, one in six New Zealanders have left their country – over a million people in total. And successive governments have promised, without much success, to find a way to stop this bleeding.

For many, the main incentive to migrate lies in the best wages paid abroad, especially in neighboring Australia. Another powerful factor is the acute housing shortage in New Zealand, a problem that plagues the current government of Jacinda Ardern and all of its predecessors.

The median home value in New Zealand has increased 19% in the past 12 months and is currently around $ 576,000, or about NZ $ 800,000, 60% more than in the United States.. New Zealand Treasury figures released last Thursday predict house prices will peak in the middle of this year.

“From an economic standpoint, it really hasn’t changed anything,” says Shamubeel Eaqub, economist at Sense Partners, based in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city. “All the underlying issues, such as poverty, narrow-mindedness, lack of access to housing, high cost of living and congestion in big cities remain the same as ever.”

Some of the recently repatriated New Zealanders will leave as soon as the pandemic ends. Last year, the lure of a coronavirus-free summer, with crowded beaches and festivals, was such that the government imposed quarantine fees of more than $ 2,000 on New Zealanders visiting the country for just a few days. ..

And those who intend to stay for a long time are usually clear about the limitations and challenges they will face. “For our family’s finances, it was a terrible decision to return to New Zealand, because in the United States we were much better off in terms of wages and housing,” said Lamia Imam, 36, returned from Texas in March with his American. husband.

Imam says returning to New Zealand has always been in his plans. But the move was hastened not only by the pandemic, but also by Donald Trump’s presidency and unresolved systemic racism in the United States, as evidenced by the protests of Black lives matter of the last boreal summer.

“I have a lot of hope in New Zealand, and none in the United States,” said Imam, adding that she was drawn to Ardern’s leadership, who with his warmth and appeal for decency gained more importance. many followers around the world.

Imam says she and her husband were willing to earn less and live in a smaller house in return for the “sense of community, security and the ability to live at your own pace” their homeland offers them.

When the pandemic began, Cat and her husband were determined to stay in Princeton. She was undergoing IVF treatment and her American husband had applied to study medicine at various universities and was waiting for the response.

“It’s important for me not to feel trapped, professionally or psychologically,” says Cat, who during her years abroad worked for the World Bank and consultancy firm Deloitte. “I was afraid to go back to New Zealand and lose this global connection with the world.”

But the pandemic dragged on and the couple’s reasons for staying in the United States faded, until they returned to Auckland earlier this year. And they’re so sure they want to stay, despite the low wages and lack of access to housing, that Cat’s husband has already started the long process of eventually getting him to study medicine in New Zealand.

For people returning to New Zealand in the hope of finding work in the public sector, as the imam intended, wages are low.. This month, the government banned pay increases for the next three years for those earning over $ 71,000, and will be severely restricted for those earning over $ 43,000.

The prospect of such a low salary was “hard to swallow,” said Cat, who was a civil servant before leaving New Zealand.

What New Zealand is offering her now – a warning that led Ardern to shut down the country before the virus spread uncontrollably – is what she expected last year from the United States, which has had an arrogant response to the pandemic. which led to disaster.

But he fears that New Zealand’s approach does not show a clear path to reintegration into the world. With a population of 5 million, less than 153,000 New Zealanders have received both doses of the vaccine, and Australians and residents of the Cook Islands are the only non-New Zealanders allowed to enter the island.

“If we’re talking about leveraging the way things are in the world, I think having a government that is so risk averse will end up being detrimental to New Zealand,” Cat says.

Imam, who worked in the US for IT company Dell, says New Zealand’s reputation abroad is better than it really deserves.

But she adds that new government policies, such as paid time off for women who have suffered a miscarriage, had convinced her that it was worth reverting to “this project called New Zealand.” “At least there’s something we’re doing well, and I want to be a part of it,” Imam says.

Translation of Jaime Arrambide

The New York Times

The New York Times