Hey all, I hope I’m posting to the right place. My gf and I are both trans women considering immigrating to New Zealand from the US. We both have green list careers so we’re not too worried about eligibility but we are wondering if we would be welcome/fit in in NZ.
Everything I’ve seen or heard in media makes NZ look about 1000 times better than the US. Every country has their problems but from my limited viewpoint NZ looks pretty great. We’d appreciate any advice or perspective you’d care to share. Thanks in advance.
That sounds similar to things here in the US, especially housing and costs of living, though I expect those to be exacerbated by NZ being an island.
I’ve been trying to get an idea of NZ politics and have noticed the rightward shift, but it seems that overall the political climate is a fair bit more leftward. Also proportional government sounds like a dream compared to the shit show we have over here.
NZ being an island definitely makes a lot of stuff expensive, but housing is a whole other kettle of fish. We have no capital gains taxes*, and due to high immigration and very low interest rates housing has been seen as a can’t lose investment because you buy, hold for 3-4 years and in the best periods of the boom would double your money. That basically triggered a bit of a doom spiral where because people need houses they had to buy at highly inflated prices triggered by those buying them for investments.
*Sort of, there are some exceptions where they apply, but mostly no.