Have I made the right choice?

Question from Lyn: What would be the best answer to the question "Why NZ?"?. Dami po kasing nagtatanong sa akin bakit sa NZ ko gusto magmigrate and though I’m answering them, I think my answer is still not as convincing to them and somewhat to myself.

It is a nagging question in the minds of all would be migrants – “Have I made the right choice?”. But before you can answer that, you have to first resolve the question “Why leave?”. If you can't come up with an answer to this that convinces yourself, then there's no point finding an answer to "Why NZ?".

An Indian migrant said in an interview with Migrant News:

When we leave our country we have to understand why we leave that country. There was something we didn't like there. In a mathematical sense it is good, but in an emotional sense it's not. Everyone misses his or her own country. I'm no different. We all miss our families, friends and those familiar roads. But we just have to adapt. Life here is good.

Once it is clear to you the reasons why you want to leave, then you examine each of the possible countries you can go to. I can suggest a logical approach for making your choice. Decide on a list of criteria such as employment, education, suitability to your lifestyle, peace and order, housing, relocation, migrant support (could come from friends or institutions), healthcare, and the chance of successfully acquiring a visa among others. Score each country against each of these criteria from 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest. Sum up all the scores for each country. The country that gets the highest score is logically your best option.

Then when you’re asked why you chose NZ, you can say that after comparing a number of countries you've come to the conclusion that NZ could provide you and your family the best possible future.

Or you can come up with standard responses such as “NZ is perfect for raising a family”, “NZ provides a laid back lifestyle”, etc. etc. (If you want to suck up to the visa officer (VO), you might add: "I'm confident I have something positive to contribute to NZ", or something to that effect). If you want to know my reasons, you can extract them from some of my previous posts, such as “My Filipino Dream”.

What you should bear in mind is that there is no single best answer to your question “Why NZ?” that will apply to everyone.The best answer is the one that suits your situation but most importantly the one you are convinced of. If someone said, “I’m allergic to smog, so I want to move to NZ because air there is fresher”, as long as he/she is convinced with that answer, who could contest his/her decision?

The main thing is, before you can convince others (your VO will be one of those), you first have to convince yourself. For what is the good of convincing everyone else if you can’t convince yourself?

"Recognize that all words are part false and part true, limited by our imperfect understanding. But strive always for honesty within yourself." - Master Kan