Living the dream: My journey to Australian citizenship

Let's talk about immigration. There's a misconception in the media that life is easy for people who emigrate to a new country. Common statements that are made are things like they commit crime, they clog our prisons, they steal our jobs and they rely on the welfare system. These statements couldn't be further from the truth and in today's blog I want to share the story of my journey to Australian citizenship which was finalised on Thursday afternoon and bear in mind that being an NZ citizen I already had an advantage because I could just get a plane and live on a temporary working visa (this is a subject for another blog) unlike people from other nations who couldn't necessarily gain entry to Australia.

So it's 2008 and I've just finished my undergraduate degree at university - a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Politics and a minor in Film, TV and Media Studies. I had been thinking of moving to Sydney for two years - Sydney because it's a lot like Auckland - It has a sky tower (Sydney Tower) and it has a harbour bridge (the Coat hanger). Two of my friends from uni also moved to Sydney so after two years of deliberation I took the plunge and moved to Sydney. I lived in King's Cross from April until June and in that time was working for the NSW Department of Housing - now FACS) and I had a second part time job in the evenings as well. I missed my friends though so I moved back to Auckland but I always had the intention to move back to Sydney. When I was back in Auckland I started my post graduate studies in Communications.

I spent about 18 months in Auckland and then in December of 2009 I moved back after two of my other friends moved to Sydney. This time around I stayed for nine months but hated my job so I went back to Auckland to complete my Post Graduate Diploma in Communications. I stayed for a few months from August 2010 until December 2010 when I moved back to Sydney where I stayed until April 2011.

I stayed in Auckland until December 2013. The reason that time was so long was because I wound up getting a job I really loved that I didn't want to leave but when the company announced their intention to close the department I worked in that was my opportunity to come back to Sydney which had always been my goal.

I arrived back in Sydney on the 24th of December 2013 at about 6pm. I'm in communications and the work here has been incredibly unstable and after several casual jobs I had a really good job I liked but it didn't work out so I left that job in November of 2015. Luckily a couple of friends let me stay with them but it was only for a short time. Fortunately I had another friend who let me stay with them and I lived there for a few years. That was only supposed to be for a month but I really liked it there in Redfern so I stayed. 

In February of 2016, then Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and then New Zealand Prime Minister John Key announced a new skilled migration pathway specifically for NZ citizens living in Australia. Under that pathway you had to earn a minimum of $53,900AUD plus super for four years prior to applying which I knew I probably wasn't going to do for that financial year.

I decided to earn money freelancing but due to some unfortunate circumstances the work dried up so I needed to go back to working for other people. Of course, a lot of employers in Sydney are incredibly dodgy and look for a scapegoat, or the work is good but it's contract work so it has an expiration date and means that the job hunt must continue. There were periods where if it hadn't been for friends giving me a place to stay I would've been homeless. It is because of this generosity that I was able to get Australian citizenship after 13 years and 28 days, which included 7 months and 1 day of processing time.

What a lot of people don't realise when you emigrate to a new country is that it's not actually necessarily smooth sailing. It took me FOUR attempts to emigrate to Australia before I was able to successfully do it. During that time there was a lot of uncertainty with casual or contract jobs and some periods in between. There were times where I had to freelance and was working 16 hours a day to earn enough money to qualify for the skilled visa pathway that Malcolm Turnbull and John Key introduced. There were periods where I couldn't pay rent. There were periods where I didn't know where my next pay was coming from. There were periods of so much uncertainty. So much uncertainty because when you move to a new country you're on your own. You're in a weird limbo land where you're still legally recognised by your old country but you're not yet recognised by your new country.

It's very hard for migrants in a new country. This could be why only 3.4% of the world's population have emigrated from their country of birth. 3.4% of the world's population is 272 million. The rest of the 9 billion people in the world live in their country of birth.

I was thinking about it a couple of days ago since becoming an Australian citizen, and the reality is, most immigrants struggle. You're away from your friends and family. You're away from your support networks and you're basically on your own. I think that's actually why we see so many immigrants setting up their own businesses. They simply have to in order to survive. I did it myself, and even today while I still work a casual job and hunt for a permanent job in the Australian Federal Government, I have my freelance writing business and I am hoping to build that up.

Instead of saying immigrants should go back home (and I've been guilty of this myself) take the time to find out their story and learn about why they decided to move to a new country because immigration is not as clear cut as people think it is. It takes a lot of hard work and determination. This blog is just a short snapshot of what goes into getting citizenship in a new country, and for me, it took 13 years and 28 days plus a lot of uncertainty and struggles along the way.

It is for that reason I am not just proud to call myself Australian, I am proud that I achieved something that not many people do. I successfully emigrated to a new country after multiple attempts. I'm very proud of that achievement in fact because along the way I had no idea if it was going to happen and in 2008 when I first decided I wanted Australian citizenship there was no pathway for me other than through marriage but I didn't want to get Australian citizenship based on who I married. I wanted to get it because of how hard I hard worked for it, and I did. There is a huge amount of satisfaction in being able to say that I achieved what I always set out to achieve - something that only 3.4% of the world's population achieve, and legally being recognised as an Australian by the government.

The other reason for this blog is to show that when things seem impossible you should never lose faith that if you persist you will get what you want and you will achieve your dream. My dream was to be an Australian citizen and I am.