Ticket to a new life

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 9 June 2019

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ana is a winner in the annual Pacific Access Category ballot. It is a visa lottery. Each year, Tonga gets up to 250 places, Fiji the same, and there are up to 75 each for Tuvalu and Kiribati. In a separate draw, 1100 visas are available in the Samoan Quota ballot. But it is not as simple as a ticket to a new life. If you win, you have around 9 months to find a job in New Zealand. And that’s not easy. The system is open to bogus job offers and corruption. And what of those who make it? Many find it hard to make the transition. And the ballot itself: is the system fair?

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Late Friday afternoon in South Auckland and a party is starting. Hundreds of
0:09.5	bright red flags and banners are waving in the sunshine and people are pouring down into an indoor arena.
0:15.8	Just so excited!
0:17.1	Wuh!
0:18.1	They're here to welcome Tonga's Rugby League team who've come to New Zealand for a historic first ever game against Australia.
0:25.6	It's huge, it's huge. It's not even like, you know, the rugby side, it's just coming together as well.
0:31.6	And it's not just here that you see the flags. For miles around,
0:35.0	Tongan red banners, scarves and balloons are waving from houses, shops and cars.
0:41.0	The song, Mate Maonga, literally die for Tonga, bla
0:47.2	from car stereos.
0:48.6	It doesn't matter whether we win or lose,
0:51.8	we still have the same spirit.
0:54.0	I'm Philip Itoly and you're listening to Ticket to a New Life.
0:59.0	Auckland is known as the largest Polynesian city in the world.
1:03.0	People from Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, and other Pacific islands
1:07.4	have been coming here to live for more than a century.
1:10.3	And Pacific Islanders now make up 15% of the city's population.
1:15.0	Established Pacific communities in New Zealand are getting bigger
1:20.0	and in the islands there are plenty of people, particularly young people, who want to join them.
1:26.0	For those islanders who dream of a New Zealand life, how easy is it to achieve,
1:32.0	and when they get here, is it what they expect.
1:35.0	I love the colours of these plants.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.