New Study Says New Zealanders Living in Australia Kind of Hate It Here

New Zealand is so close to Australia, it seems weird that you need a passport to visit. We're basically the same country, right? Wrong. A new immigration survey suggests Kiwis living and working in Australia are profoundly unhappy with how they're treated here—in fact, their levels of cultural alienation and overall dissatisfaction with the Aussie Way of Life are comparable only to those of asylum seekers.

Compiled from surveys completed by more than 10,000 people between September 2015 and February 2016, the Australia Today Report is the largest study of immigrants ever undertaken in Australia. The study assessed the sense of belonging felt by immigrants across eight visa categories, but New Zealanders stood out as a group who felt like the Australian experience hadn't stacked up to expectation. Of the NZ visa holders surveyed, 28 percent said their experience of life in Australia was more negative than they thought it would be.

The only group who were more dissatisfied was asylum seekers settled in Australia. Their "unhappiness" levels stand at around 50 percent.

New Zealand citizens have their own special status on the Australian immigration spectrum. Thanks to 1973's Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement, their passports guarantee them indefinite residence—although, crucially, not citizenship. NZ residents hold a Special Category Visa (SCV), which is automatically granted on arrival.

Including New Zealanders, there were about 1.67 million temporary residents in Australia, as of June 2013. That's around 7.2 percent of Australia's resident population, which also includes permanent visa holders.

But those numbers are declining. Between 2012 and 2014, New Zealand arrivals dropped by 51 percent from 41,230 people to 27,274. While there are a number of possible reasons for this, the survey suggests the fact that many New Zealanders are unhappy with how they're treated by Australians may be relevant.

NZ residents reported the highest level of discrimination among the visa categories analysed. When asked to specify the aspect of life in Australia that they liked the least, 28 percent of Kiwis cited "racism and discrimination." In a sad anonymous testimony, one Kiwi respondent described how she was treated when shopping in an affluent Sydney suburb:

"A few weeks ago my husband and I had the day off, we both had the day off and we decided we had to go [to the Castle Towers shopping centre]. Oh my gosh, the first time in years where I felt so—out of place, I felt like people were judging [us] because we were brown."

Of course, it's not just New Zealanders who experience racism in Australia. A shocking (or is it?) 80 percent of South Sudanese immigrants said they'd experienced discrimination of this kind too.

But it's not just overt racism. New Zealander SCV holders feel like they're being treated unfairly in many ways. Much of their resentment seems to stem from the fact that, although they must pay taxes, they're not allowed to vote or receive welfare benefits. Survey participants pointed out the problems faced by Kiwis who had been taxed in Australia for many years, but came unstuck upon losing their jobs and finding they didn't qualify for Centrelink benefits or employment assistance.

What makes all this worse is that Australians migrating to New Zealand easily qualify for full citizenship there. For New Zealanders wanting to come here, the situation is much harder.

What else are New Zealanders unhappy about? Well, they're not big fans of our government. Of the eight immigrant groups surveyed, Kiwis had the lowest level of trust in Australian political parties—just 10 percent of them trust your mates in the Labor and Liberal parties. Only 17 percent trusted the federal parliament, and only 27 percent trusted the Department of Immigration and Border Protection. That last stat might not be limited to New Zealanders.

It's not all bad. New Zealanders grudgingly admit that living in working in Australia has some financial benefits. New Zealand Special Category Visa holders report it's easier to find a job here than in their home country, which is good, given the whole Centrelink thing.

"The money's better and [the] job opportunities," one respondent said. "You'd do the same work back in New Zealand and it's pretty much double the money … In comparison you wouldn't … get far financially in New Zealand."

Interestingly, the survey declared that, despite the reservations of our rugby-loving residents, Australia is overall a good country for immigrants. While New Zealanders might not be feeling very Aussie, other cultural groups reported that they were living and loving the Australian Dream.

When asked whether "Australia is a land of economic opportunity where in the long run, hard work brings a better life," 94 percent of residents who arrived here in the last five years agreed. This compares with 13 percent who arrived between 2001 and 2005, and 18 percent who arrived between 1991 and 1995.

Regardless, next time you bump into a New Zealander at the pub, maybe don't make fun of their accent.

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