Once the ticket is secured for the Land of the Long White Cloud of ‘milk and honey’ people come loaded with dreams to do well.
Now NZ does in fact deliver well on its promise of opportunities! I have experienced this first-hand myself.
However, the misconstrued gap in that equation comes with the ‘mentality’ that wealth and security will be waiting for you on a silver platter. The second barrier to those opportunities for our Samoan people is what I call ‘cultural’ mentalities. I use the word ‘mentality’ because what I’m about to elaborate on, I strongly believe, is not part of Samoan culture per say, rather it’s an acquired Samoan ‘way of thinking’. Before those families board their flights to their new lives, they would have already had a list of ‘things to send back’ to certain family members. They will have received the blessings of their parents, extended family, and something else equally long lasting.
‘Expectations’.
The families will have been given direct speeches about working hard in NZ, doing well and ‘remember your family’, ‘remember the love we gave you’. “Aua ne’i galo le Alofa”. Now that last phrase may be interpreted in different ways, but when you’re getting ready to travel to a land where wealth is supposedly acquired overnight and your economic stability is expected to now exceed that of your family left behind, and you were raised in a culture where reciprocity has always been the main currency, there is only one appropriate interpretation. That is, remittance! I haven’t lived in Samoa for five years now, but prior to that I know that remittance was if not the top revenue for the country it would have been the second. Judging from the experiences of most Samoan families I’ve visited in NZ, that couldn’t have changed much.
I’m not hard hearted, or ignorant of Fa’a Samoa. Believe me I too am bound to this way of ‘thinking’. Whether it’s expected of me or not, it tends to grow on you and you feel somehow obligated to give back to your family for several things like funerals of people you’ve never met before, and have not received any help from since you were born, or helping someone’s child with their school fees or other regardless of your own ten children’s needs, or someone’s getting a Matai title and we all have to give money so the village can see how ‘well off’ our family has become (that’s the silent real reason of why contributions are so high), the list goes on and on...
But when someone of my ethnicity is sitting in front of me, balling their eyes out, convicted of charges the likes of ‘Theft as a Servant, Using Documents for Pecuniary Purposes, Giving False Information to WINZ or Housing NZ, Burglary, Male Assaults Female (Domestic Violence)’ and the underlying issues boil down to financial hardships, you have got to ask the questions that we all try to sweep under the fala.
Why are our Samoan people who migrate to New Zealand falling under the traps of financial hardship? Why are our people feeling the need to lie to Housing NZ about the true nature of their marital circumstances and employment so they may have access to homes reserved for people who earn less than them, or lying to Social Welfare about the same thing so they may earn a benefit while their partner works, and therefore they’re bringing in the same income that people like me are having to work for but at my expense? Why are our people being driven to commit acts of theft in their well respected jobs? Why are young Samoan families and couples experiencing severe depression and anxieties leading to on-going arguments and police intervention at the homes every other week? Why are our youth turning to the streets, gangs, drugs and burglary? I know that there are numerous inter-related domino effect factors for a lot of the social issues that our Samoan migrants in New Zealand are facing. But I also strongly believe, one of those issues is ‘Expectations’.
You see, when they boarded that flight to NZ, they didn’t know about the pricing of rental properties for a week. They didn’t know how long it would take to save money for a vehicle, which is a necessity in this country when you have a big family, a trademark of Samoan aiga. They didn’t know that you have to have lived in NZ for two years before you are eligible for Housing NZ properties, and a benefit, and other entitlements. They didn’t know that medical services were free ONLY to infants and children under 5. They didn’t know that the cost of uniforms for students in schools were more expensive than the yearly school donation. They didn’t know that their children can’t just wear jandals to school, they have to wear proper fully covered shoes, with the similar price tag to a part of their uniform. We're talking over $180NZD per child, if you get them everything in order for your child to be warm while at school (which unfortunately we see most Pacific Island children don’t have their full uniform). They didn’t know that most parking spaces in NZ are paid,( that includes hospital parking). They didn’t know that they would be needing things like internet and telephones in order to live in their new culture and environment, where most things function in the digital world. They didn’t know that their hard earned wages (double sometimes triple what they used to earn back in Samoa) wouldn’t go a long way with things like, food, petrol, clothes , basic necessities and children’s needs. They didn’t know that whilst food that were once in-disposable to them, although might seem cheaper, it all adds up. They didn’t know that in order to keep your children off the streets you needed to ensure they participate in as much extra-expensive curricular activities as possible, to keep their newfound interests, curiosities and energies under wraps.
No they didn’t know at all.
So some folks end up getting themselves into insurmountable debt to buy a car for their new life, send money home for fa’alavelaves the likes of funerals, weddings, title bestowals, church activities, buy their families in Samoa cars that are better than what they drive in NZ, send boxes of food, clothes, and goods (for no apparent reason) or just parental allowances on a regular basis. Then they moan and groan and eat $2.00 cereals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They buy Chicken backs from the Chinese for $13NZD and try to make it last for a week between a Family of 6 or 7 (average Samoan families). Kids’ lunch boxes (if any) are often empty, their uniforms aren’t complete and they’re cold because they’re not wearing the proper shoes and thermal wear (we see this everyday with most PI children especially in South Auckland). Many Samoans may not necessarily be living in these circumstances in NZ, I am talking about the ones that end up in the Justice system.
Most of our migrant Samoan families that I’ve come across in my professional and private community projects, are not paying their debts, finding themselves on eviction because they’re not paying their rent, their phones and internet are cut off because they’re not paying their bills, and they’re not at all in sync with their new way of life and their new environment, because they’re having to worry about balancing how to put food on the table, and where to get money to send to Samoa. And if you’re a follower of certain Samoan churches, you’ve got even more to worry about. (But that’s a topic on its own). They’re finding that they’ve got loan sharks on their backs because they’re continually loaning money or gambling to find something to meet that expectation.
I went to the house of an extended relative who were sending weekly allowances to Samoa once. We’re talking the rest of the other breadwinner’s income remitted to Samoa, equivalent of around $1,500TALA, whilst the partner claims the Solo Mother benefit so they can survive. They were sending that much home, yet they couldn’t offer me a cup of tea, because they didn’t have any cups! (They said as much). Those usually cost about $6NZD for a dozen at the Warehouse. Now if they couldn’t afford to buy tea cups, they shouldn’t have any business sending money to Samoa. But that ‘expectation’ is so real, and so strong, and so deeply entrenched into our peoples’ minds and functioning, that people just find themselves going out of their way and beyond their means to show their families back home ‘that they haven’t forgotten the alofa’. Should this be the Samoan interpretation of ALOFA?
Samoan families migrating to NZ are finding that life in New Zealand is only an experience of ‘milk and honey’ if you’re paying your bills and focussing on the needs of your children and yourself first above all others, and that you’re learning to say ‘NO’ to the expectations. They’re learning to say ‘this is all I can afford, nothing more’. And they’re learning, that just because they say no, doesn’t mean they have forgotten their families, or they love them any less. Instead, it should mean, asking their families back home, to be a little bit more understanding and supportive of their new life. That it’s not at all the life of luxury and wealth that they are expecting it to be within a matter of months. It’s a life of hard work, that takes years to build from scratch, and eventually it will become the life of ‘milk and honey’ with years of savings, paying bills, not having to get into debt.
And then, maybe then, helping out others aside from yourself and your children is something that’s within your means, and won’t put you and your children and family in jeopardy of the law, and out of a harmonious peaceful life in a new country, new culture, new way of living and thinking.
In summary, Samoan migrant families in NZ are finding themselves in debt, and in trouble with the law and have acquired addictions of alcohol, drugs and gambling. Statistics show an escalation in crimes related to financial hardships with Samoan and PI families in general. Pacific Island families are always at the lesser end of the economic ruler, and apparently low achievers in Education in New Zealand (I think this is mainly because of our ratio as the minority race in a huge multicultural country, because Samoans and PIs are doing well in Education and this seriously needs to be reassessed). This ‘cultural’ mentality is in fact a huge contributing factor. It should be up to us who have found ourselves in positions to be of help to others, to educate our people to its detrimental effects.
I leave you with contact details to the TALANOA – help line 0800-56-26-787. Led by Samoa’s own son and legend, La’auli Michael Jones, the organisation is there to help you with any problems you’re experiencing with loan sharks. Learn about your debt and how to shrink it the best possible way!
Think Smart. Think of your safety and your children First!
