In their own words: Why these young, bright Kiwis have no plans to leave Aotearoa

Friday, 8 July 2022

As thousands of Kiwis flee the country for their OE, talented youngsters who see their future lies in the land of the long white cloud tell their stories.

Should I go, or should I stay?

There’s no one answer for young adults, after the borders opened thousands reached for their passports, headed for the airport, and thence to the likes of Sydney, Melbourne, London, Berlin and NYC.

Annual net migration was negative in the first three months of the year, with 7300 more people leaving than entering. Those losses were driven by young adults, Stats NZ said. There was a particular increase in those aged 18 to 27 leaving.

And yet, others stayed, choosing Aotearoa as their best option, even as it faced a potpourri of social and economic issues. Those who chose New Zealand, spoken to by Stuff, cited quality of life, community, better health systems, lack of bureaucracy, education facilities, and mental health support.

But there was much more. Common to all was a belief anything is possible from a New Zealand base. Just as binding was their burning desire to prove that the case.

Simran Kaur, founder, Girls That Invest

Kaur, 25, and friend Sonya launched the incredibly popular Girls That Invest podcast which became a number one business podcast in the US.

There's probably going to be some people that might start to wonder or question, if everyone is going overseas, should I? Am I being silly for staying here? As much as there's so many amazing things overseas, the grass isn't always greener. I really love it here. I've never felt disadvantaged for having qualifications (from the University of Auckland) and experience that is local. Post Covid, I definitely don't think employers are expecting to see that stuff on your CV.

There's just something about NZ that makes me feel, one, safe, but more importantly, NZ is in many ways the easier place to start a business, in terms of ease. As a young person starting out, it's easier to do it here than overseas. I think it was Michael Hill who had a great piece of advice. He said, if you can't make it in the NZ market it's going to be a lot harder everywhere else. NZ is definitely full of a lot of innovative people.

I don't come from a business background. Everything I learned was [online]. There was no bureaucracy getting in our way. We had a lot of people around us, championing us, it felt like a community. I think everyone has a right to to be a little but concerned about how things are going in the economy. The cost of living is a real problem, but I think it's not a NZ specific problem, it's everywhere.

Te Kahukura Boynton (Ngati Kahungunu, Tuhoe, and Whakatohea), founder, Māori Millionaire podcast

Boynton, 18, is a law student at The University of Waikato. Her blog and podcast ‘Maori Millionaire’ discusses everything from investing, delaying gratification, all the way to building different income streams.

I’ve been seeing a lot of people sharing the benefits which come from crossing the ditch, even if it’s just to Australia. Better pay, freedom, more balance. These are in fact the building blocks of the value systems behind Māori Millionaire: to be able to achieve more freedom of time, increase your income and thus enjoy life more.

With better financial resources I believe that we can access better health systems, education facilities, and mental health support. These things aid in quality of life. I believe that one of the biggest reasons whānau choose to move abroad is for this quality of life they don’t have in Aotearoa. As a result of colonisation our best and biggest financial asset was stolen from us and that was our whenua. This theft lead to the poverty of a once prosperous culture. Due to this lack of assets, Māori now top the charts for every single negative statistic available.

We won’t ever be able to achieve this quality of life in Aotearoa, though, if our biggest assets move abroad. We need our rangatira, academics, reo speakers and artists to remain and grow here so that our economy and community grows too. E hara taku toa I te toa takitahi; engari, he toa takitini – my wins do not come from myself, but from the collective effort.

If we continue to develop our own whenua, whānau and iwi, then I believe that this quality of life will also be attainable in the beautiful whenua of Aotearoa. We must work together though in order to achieve this quality.

Maori Millionaire also likes to promote the idea of investing in your own whānau, your own iwi, your own hapū. There are non-financial investments such as learning how to read or becoming educated which pay their worth in gold. These are just some of the awesome kaupapa which I believe in, which keep me grounded in Aotearoa.

James Preston, international athlete

Wellingtonian Preston, 25, is the third-fastest Kiwi 800m runner in history, after Olympic champions Peter Snell and John Walker. He holds a Bachelor of Building Science.

I wanted to base myself in New Zealand full time - most of the guys want to go to the States. It was a pretty clear decision for me, I turned down a lot of offers to go to colleges in the States.

I wanted to prove I could do it from New Zealand, prove what could be possible because it’s an option that hasn’t been considered much by other athletes, it’s more of a ‘if I go to the States, what school should I be going to?’

Everything the United States can offer, I believe New Zealand can offer. There is the argument of free tuition - New Zealand offers that with the Prime Minister’s Scholarship.

A lot of the degrees in the States don’t necessarily transfer to New Zealand, by going to the States for an undergrad degree you can face having to come back to New Zealand to do post grad.

I’ve got a cool little support group of like-minded people and it’s proving what is possible, even though running’s hard it’s satisfying to be able to say I got to 1min 45.3sec being based in New Zealand.

I've come across a lot of people here who share a very similar passion, the same work ethic. If I’m running the times, it’s all because there’s a bunch of people that have gone in to support me.

It’s so cool to be able to show that with the help of other New Zealanders you can run 1min 45sec in Europe. We could be having these quite high quality domestic meets here in New Zealand … I’d just like to show what could be achieved if I was based here.

I don’t think the US it is the greatest option for most people, I’m obviously very biased.

Tyrone Tangata-Makiri, founder, In The Flow State

Tangata-Makiri, 30, (Māori, Cook Islands); Bachelor (Hons) Creative Technologies. In The Flow State helps services businesses grow and scale, and leads an impact project called ESTBLSHD which makes opportunities accessible for Māori and Pacific businesses in East Auckland.

Why did I stay in New Zealand? First and easy answer is, my whānau is here, my family is here, and being around them is important to me. Secondly, I've been fortunate to travel parts of the world and I can see the allure, but I feel like I belong here. I guess that has a lot to do with being Māori and I also have to acknowledge being raised in East Auckland, a place that has shown me love and been home for many generations of my family.

Growing up in a traditionally low socioeconomic community, as a youngster, I was always thinking 'How do I get out of here?' 'How do I make money so we can be better off?' I wanted to travel to countries like Australia and the United States to make more money, but I came to the realisation that I'd rather achieve success with the people around me. It's something that I've been doing with others for a while now in the entrepreneurial space and I love it. We're still early, but we are already seeing and experiencing change and I don't see why I would want to be anywhere else right now.

On top of that, we live in an era where we are global. There are opportunities that exist online that allow me to act global but be local. I personally believe we don't need to be anywhere else, cause the world is literally at our fingertips. Don't get me wrong, we have our challenges here in Aotearoa, but that's what excites me, trying to contribute in some way to solving our struggles.

Sonya Williams, co-founder Sharesies

Williams, 34, is a co-founder and director of investing platform Sharesies. Since launching in 2017, more than 580,000 Kiwi users have invested, and it has $2 billion in funds under management. Most investors are under 40.

I’m a firm believer that challenging times make us better in the long run. There are so many ingredients that will make us stronger, and have a hopeful future. When you look at the things that make me hopeful, it’s the amount of opportunities we have.

We’ve always known NZ as a great place to live, we have this great lifestyle, but when we think of some of the opportunities over the last two years, the opening up of a global, hybrid, flexible, and remote working lifestyle means we’re less isolated, and people have more options to work. It puts pressure on employers that they are a great place to work.

Kiwis have always been super connected to the idea of an OE, it runs pretty deep. Yes, at some point there is this draw to travel, but what is unique about now… is it feels like an ‘and’ situation rather than an ‘or’. I think we have five team members on OEs, working while they travel. We've been able to work with them to support what that looks like. It's great for us because we get to retain really talented people, and it's good for them because they get to go overseas and experience life.

I’m a part of a women’s business group that catches up regularly, they’re from so many industries: fashion, cosmetics, wellbeing, creative services, and we’re obviously in financial services and tech. When I hear so much about ambitions and the future that lays ahead, that becomes more exciting and interesting. Those kinds of conversations make me so hopeful.

One thing I notice about NZ businesses is this kind of purposeful nature – doing good in doing business, is a thing that really rings through and through. We’ve got people bringing innovative thinking to problems that exist. In these situations we have at the moment, when you have people who are ambitious trying to overcome those challenges – that creates opportunities.

Correction: An earlier version of this story gave an incorrect figure for Sharesies investors and the value of funds, based on outdated information. Story amended July 11, 2022.