The Brain Gain

With New Zealand becoming renowned as a great place to live, it was the first-choice destination for a new generation of talented migrants looking for a better life. Sharon Stephenson talks to four of them.

A  Nicky Meiring, Architect

Listen to Nicky Meiring talk about South Africa and it soon becomes evident that she's mourning for a country she once called home. 'The current economic situation has made South Africa quite a hard place to live in,' she says, 'but I do miss it.' Nicky first arrived in Auckland in 1994 and got a job in an architectural practice in Auckland where she soon settled in. She says 'New Zealand often feels like utopia. I just love the tranquillity and the fact you can lead a safe and ordinary life.' She lives and works from a renovated factory where her mantelpiece is littered with awards for the design of her summer house on Great Barrier Island. 'Although the design of buildings is fairly universal, houses here are generally constructed of timber as opposed to brick and when it comes to the engineering of buildings, I have to take great heed of earthquakes which isn't an issue in South Africa,' she says. 'But the very fact that my training and points of reference are different means I have something to offer. And I'm so glad I have the opportunity to leave my stamp on my new country."

B  Jenny Orr, Art Director

American Jenny Orr's southern accent seems more at home in the movies than in New Zealand's capital, Wellington. 'I'm from Alabama, but no, we didn't run around barefoot and my father didn't play the banjo!' she jokes, in anticipation of my preconceptions. Having worked in corporate design for ten years in the USA, she was after a change and thought of relocating to New Zealand. It didn't take long for her to land a job with an Auckland design firm, where she was able to gain experience in an unfamiliar but challenging area of design -packaging -and before long, she was headhunted to a direct marketing agency which recently transferred her to Wellington. While she admits she could have the same salary and level of responsibility at home, 'it would probably have been harder to break into this kind of field. I'm not saying I couldn't have done it, but it may have taken longer in the US because of the sheer number of people paying their dues ahead of me.' Ask Jenny how she's contributing to this country's 'brain gain' and she laughs. 'I don't see myself as being more talented or intelligent but opposing views are what make strategies, concepts and designs better and I hope that's what I bring.'

C  Sarah Hodgett, Creative Planner

What happens when all your dreams come true? Just ask Sarah Hodgett. Sarah says that she had always dreamed of a career in advertising. 'But I was from the wrong class and went to the wrong university. In the UK, if you're working class you grow up not expecting greatness in your life. You resign yourself to working at the local factory and knowing your place.' New Zealand, on the other hand, allowed her to break free of those shackles. 'It's a land of opportunity. I quickly learned that if you want to do something here, you just go for it, which is an attitude I admire beyond belief.' Within a month of arriving, she'd landed a job in customer servicing with an advertising agency. Then, when an opening in research came up, she jumped at the chance. 'My job is to conduct research with New Zealanders,' she explains. 'So I get to meet people from across the social spectrum which is incredibly rewarding.' Being a foreigner certainly works in her favour, says Sarah. 'Because a lot of my research is quite personal, respondents tend to see me as' impartial and open-minded and are therefore more willing to share their lives with me.' She certainly sees New Zealand in a good light. 'I wish New Zealanders could see their country as I do. That's why it saddens me that they don't think they're good enough on the global stage.'


D  Lucy Kramer, School Director

Born in Sydney, Australia, Lucy Kramer left for London when she was 23 to further her career as a stockbroker. 'London certainly lived up to my expectations and I had a very exciting, very hectic lifestyle,' Lucy explains. But after four years she felt burnt out and was becoming increasingly disillusioned with her job. 'People at work were far too competitive for my liking,' she says. It was at this time she made two life-changing decisions. 'I signed up for a teacher- training course and shortly after that met my partner, Graeme. He asked me to come back to New Zealand with him and I didn't hesitate.' It wasn't long before she found work in a large Auckland school and, since then, she has rapidly worked her way up to a management position. 'It's fair to say I'm not earning what I used to but my New Zealand colleagues are much more easy- going. A good atmosphere more than makes up for the drop in salary. Another thing that impresses me is that you can leave your stuff on a seat in a cafe and it'll still be there half an hour later. People are pretty trustworthy here. Sometimes it bothers me that we're so remote -you can feel a bit cut off from what's going on in the rest of the world, but on the whole, I'd say it's one of the best moves I ever made.'