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Having lived in NZ for a couple of years working at Victoria University of Wellington, the other piece of the puzzle is NZ suffers from crippling brain drain: t

Having lived in NZ for a couple of years working at Victoria University of Wellington, the other piece of the puzzle is NZ suffers from crippling brain drain: their best and brightest students immediately head over to Australia where they can make more money and use the exchange rate to pay off their student loan quicker. My read is that kiwis tend to come back when they're ready to start a family, but during those vital 18-25 years when the entrepreneurial spirit is strongest, they're simply not in the country. They're elsewhere. The kiwis I talk to that are in that demographic here at Google all seem to be want to go back to NZ, but only if the prospects are there, such as Google opening a real-deal engineering office. But it's hard to convince companies that that is a worthwhile venture when Australia and NZ have freedom of worker movement. Without the population to lead NZ forward, and with no companies willing to invest to drag it forward, I don't think we'll ever see NZ be richer and more productive. But as other commenters have noticed, I think NZ is perfectly happy with that, because they're happy with their lot, which is something to be envied.

peatmoss 12y ago
I saw the same thing when I lived in New Zealand (just under 4 years, 4 years ago) and worked at the University of Auckland in a non-academic technical role. Personally, however, I'm a counter example of what you describe. I'm an American who recently started a PhD program in the states, who would quite like an academic position in New Zealand when all is said and done!
wldlyinaccurate 12y ago
As a kiwi, the brain drain is something that always bothered me. Right from the beginning of high school I knew that I would end up working overseas for several years, regardless of whether I really wanted to or not. And that's exactly what I'm doing right now -- I live in London, saving twice as much as I could in NZ. I don't enjoy the lifestyle here at all, and I want to go back to NZ as soon as possible to start a family, but the opportunities available in Europe (and the rest of the world) simply dwarf those available in NZ. The good news is that immigration from Asia, India and the Pacific has given the country a significant population of people who culturally are more likely than Europeans to help with population growth. So who knows, maybe in 10-20 years the population will be large enough for the brain drain to sort itself out.
gibrown 12y ago
That was my experience as well. The few folks who managed to work remotely for an overseas company did really well, but pay rates within the country were a lot lower than I expected. Working at a distributed company, I really wish more Kiwis would apply to my company if only so I could have an excuse to go visit. :)
- peatmoss 12y ago
  I'm an American with NZ permanent residency. I might be convinced to return there ;-)
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]

peatmoss 12y ago

I saw the same thing when I lived in New Zealand (just under 4 years, 4 years ago) and worked at the University of Auckland in a non-academic technical role. Personally, however, I'm a counter example of what you describe. I'm an American who recently started a PhD program in the states, who would quite like an academic position in New Zealand when all is said and done!

wldlyinaccurate 12y ago

As a kiwi, the brain drain is something that always bothered me. Right from the beginning of high school I knew that I would end up working overseas for several years, regardless of whether I really wanted to or not. And that's exactly what I'm doing right now -- I live in London, saving twice as much as I could in NZ. I don't enjoy the lifestyle here at all, and I want to go back to NZ as soon as possible to start a family, but the opportunities available in Europe (and the rest of the world) simply dwarf those available in NZ. The good news is that immigration from Asia, India and the Pacific has given the country a significant population of people who culturally are more likely than Europeans to help with population growth. So who knows, maybe in 10-20 years the population will be large enough for the brain drain to sort itself out.

gibrown 12y ago

That was my experience as well. The few folks who managed to work remotely for an overseas company did really well, but pay rates within the country were a lot lower than I expected. Working at a distributed company, I really wish more Kiwis would apply to my company if only so I could have an excuse to go visit. :)

peatmoss 12y ago
I'm an American with NZ permanent residency. I might be convinced to return there ;-)
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]