New to New Zealand? Top 10 things to do first
- Apply for a personal tax number
- Open a bank account
- Find a place to live
- Find a school for your children
- Get a driver's licence
- Join a public library
- Learn New Zealand English
- Find a family doctor (GP)
- Insure your life, house and possessions
- Job search / self-employment
The Department of Labour is responsible for leading the New Zealand Settlement Strategy and, in 2005, began to establish a network of Settlement Support Co-ordinators across the country.
The settlement support initiative has a dual focus:
- Better co-ordinated provision of settlement advice and information, and
- Better connected and more responsive mainstream services for migrants and refugees at the local level.
There are now 19 settlement support initiatives around New Zealand. Positive settlement outcomes are achieved through collaboration between community organisations, service providers, government agencies and migrant and refugee communities all working together to support newcomers to North Shore City.
The initiative aims to make local information needed by migrants, refugees and their families available and easily accessible.
There are six key goals to this strategy:
- Newcomers obtain employment appropriate to qualifications and skills
- Newcomers are confident using English or able to access support
- Appropriate information and services can be accessed
- Supportive social networks are formed and a community identity established
- Newcomers feel safe in expressing their ethnic identity, feel accepted and feel part of the wider host community
- Newcomers are able to participate in civic, community and social activities
Settlement Support New Zealand has been established to respond to goal three of the national strategy.
For more information please contact the North Shore Settlement Support Adviser, phone
(09) 486 8635 or email ssnznorthshore@raeburnhouse.org.nz.
