Journey To A Better Life

For Social Studies we are looking at the topic of Migration. We read an article about a Filipino that migrated from the Philippines to New Zealand for better living conditions. After reading it, we had to write an essay about what made that Filipino move to New Zealand and what their life was like. I wrote about the living conditions in the Philippines that the Filipino talked about, how the living conditions in NZ compares, what are push and pull factors and migration in general. Here is my essay about Migration:

Do you know the feeling when you’re not allowed to buy that cake you saw while at the store as a kid, or the jealousy you feel when someone has that thing you’ve wanted for a long time? Let’s be honest, we’re all guilty of feeling ungrateful at times. The simple pleasures in life such as a roof over our head, clothes freshly ironed to wear and food on the table every night that we call our ‘usual’ are privileges that people in other countries would do anything to experience. While we’re just expecting these things to happen during our daily lives, children from other countries aren’t able to attend school and instead spend their day working to help earn their family a living. Conditions like this are what cause people to leave their country in order to live a better lifestyle or provide a better upbringing for their family. This is called migration, which is the act of moving to another place. The Philippines is a country with many immigrants, some even migrating to New Zealand.

Despite the Philippines having a similar land size to New Zealand, their population comes to just over a 100 million whereas New Zealand only has 4.8 million people here. This makes the living conditions really hard as there are not enough opportunities to go around, but in New Zealand there are plenty of opportunities. It is not in the Philippines’s law for children to attend school; if their parents say that they have to help the family by working then that’s what’s done. Having such a high population makes jobs and housing a problem. A number of people have to share the same room and it’s not the biggest of rooms either. A number of the houses in the Philippines aren’t able to access electricity, or not much of it. They may not have basic - at least what we may call basic - things such as electric ovens and air conditioning, making their already hot summers unbearable. In the Philippines the minimum wage is not enough to live on. You could get paid as little as $15 a day, and daily expenses such as food suddenly become a struggle. With the overcrowding there, crimes and robberies aren’t uncommon, adding safety as another concern living over there. Living conditions there aren’t ideal, especially for raising kids or a family. These reasons are what cause some Filipinos to leave their country and migrate to another country such as New Zealand for our luxury living conditions. Although I’ve only visited the Philippines a couple of times to see my family there, I’ve witnessed children my age going from person to person begging for money. There was this one time at the airport a kid approached and asked my mum if she had any money she could spare.

For those who have been raised up in New Zealand their entire life wouldn’t understand how people would be able to survive in such harsh living conditions. The lifestyle we have here in New Zealand as a first world country means access to a public health care system, education and support from the government. Even if a family may not be able to afford the luxuries that other families can, organisations such as Red Cross, Salvation Army and My Food Bag are able to help out. Free education and healthcare for those aged under 18 in New Zealand is a real privilege and we have a democratic government. We thankfully don’t have any dangerous wildlife or threats such as poisonous snakes or spiders. New Zealand came out as the 2nd safest country in the world, according to Conde Nast Traveler’s The 10 Safest Countries in the World list. Kids are able to hang out at local skate parks or make a quick dash to the local dairy with their friends, expressing a sense of freedom. With such amazing benefits to live here, New Zealand has many migrants coming over every year, with the vast majority of migrants settling down in the Auckland region. Being born in Scotland, my father’s family migrated to New Zealand when he was just 3 because they thought New Zealand would be a better place to raise a child. These factors are known as pull factors.

Pull factors are factors that are reasons or causes that make a person attracted to moving to a certain place or country. On the other end of the spectrum are push factors. Push factors are what cause a person and/or their family to flee or simply leave their country. Common push factors immigrants face are because of their countries corrupt government, poverty, safety issues and crime rates or just because there aren’t many opportunities there. Immigrants leave their country in hopes of achieving a better life in another country. Reasons that may pull them towards a certain country may be because of a job, a better education or healthcare system or just a safer and free place to live in general. It may even be because of other friends or family that live there. New Zealand is a great place to move to because of our low population density. With only 16 people to 1 square kilometre - compared to the United States with 30 and the UK having 252 - the traffic isn’t nearly as bad as the migrant’s original country, and the job opportunities here are plentiful. Migrants that are moving and have moved to New Zealand are able to start a great life here, giving their kids an education and getting a suitable job along with accessible emergency services. Even if New Zealand isn’t their choice of country to migrate to, they’ll still live a better life than how they did in their original country; which was what caused them to leave in the first place.

Thousands of immigrants are finding themselves having to leave their country to flee to another. Whether it’s because of a more severe reason such as war and poverty or simply for job employment. Push and pull reasons are why migrants choose to move to another country. We have a lot of migrants in New Zealand, including Filipinos. So when your day is turning out less than idle, just remember to look out for the little and simple things in life because it could be going a lot worse. Most importantly, don’t complain about having to go to school everyday. There are children out there that just wish they would have that same opportunity, but instead have to spend their days working just to ensure there will be food on the table at dinner.