"What shocks foreigners about living in New Zealand long-term?"

[breeze]

Being Asian in NZ, especially the cities, is fine. I'm Southeast Asian Chinese living in Auckland so perhaps it's a more diverse place, I haven't faced anything racist. When we were living in Wellington, there was the occasional remark or kids doing slanted eyes (stretching their eyes upward with their fingers), which I responded by staring blankly at the person, or lift up my phone and pretend to take a picture of them doing the slanted eye. When we lived in a smaller town previously, my partner did face discrimination a bit more than me.

If it bothers you, grow a thicker skin.

My thinking is, I am a law-abiding, civic-minded legal resident, I work and pay full taxes. Who are these people, who most of the time are insecure in their own bodies, probably don't even work (a day in their lives), who are they to offend me?

Most of the time, being confident and looking nonchalant wards these people off. If there were any occasion when someone tries to be funny and say or do racist things, I would not hesitate to speak up and tell the person off. It may not come naturally at first but with a little practise, you will be so good at it, just like the locals!

[Elliana]

"Most surprising to foreigner is the average Kiwi's perception of Asian people, which can go from dismissive and stereotyped at best, to downright racist at worst."

No comments on this so far? If that's how things are, I won't be hanging around too long.

Too simple of a comment, though. For eg, 'Asian' means different things to different people. But is one thing I would worry about bringing my wife and daughter down there, regardless of perceived origins.

I'm Asian, and I said I disagreed with #6 (the statement you mentioned) to an extent.

I mean, stereotypes exist. About everyone. So I won't pretend that NZ is perfect in this aspect. But I've been here for several years and I've never experienced outright racism. A few (keyword: few) people I know have had insults yelled at them from passing cars. But really, in my opinion it's not a huge deal and it's not something I worry about much. IMO there are much more important factors to be basing a choice of location on than the risk of a few bogans or drunks being rude.

[happy_az]

Some of those statements are just silly. It says insulated houses are rare and yet I'm not sure I know a single person who lives in an un-insulated house?

[Hagabel]

I know tons of people whom live in uninsulated houses. I am just glad all the new builds have to have insulation

[happy_az]

I know tons of people whom live in uninsulated houses. I am just glad all the new builds have to have insulation

That may be so, but you'd hardly say it's rare. All houses built since the 1970's have some form of insulation, I think the outer walls plus the ceiling, at least.

[Oregonkiwi]

There's a big difference between "insulated" and "properly insulated"

[Asteger]

There's a big difference between "insulated" and "properly insulated"

☺ I presume 'properly' would mean having more than a roof, floor, windows, doors and walls?

[happy_az]

There's a big difference between "insulated" and "properly insulated"

That's true but the statement was THERE'S NO CENTRAL HEATING, AND INSULATION IS RARE, which is incorrect. The statement implies that any form of insulation is rare. My house was built in 1992 and has Pink Batts in the ceilings and walls (but not under floor), and so would every house built in that year, as it was regulation. Pink Batts is very good insulation, in my opinion

[dharder]

I'm not 'Asian', whatever that means in the NZ context, but I was shocked at attitudes voiced about 'Asians'. I don't think there's such a thing as an average Kiwi either, but the number of throwaway remarks that I would clearly classify as racist was astounding. This isn't just about Asians, but basically everyone not White.

I have found that very disturbing throughout my time in NZ, mostly I think because it came from unexpected sources and voiced so loudly. There is that 'casual' racism everywhere, I get that, but I wasn't used to educated otherwise politically not at the far right end to come up with remarks like that (Asian driving, Asian house buying, language abilities, names, etc). Also unexpected was the fact that these weren't close friends, or people who knew everyone in any given situation we were in, but that it seemed quite acceptable to voice these stereotypes with the expectation that one would not be contradicted or pulled up for it.

Most of these people would probably not voice these sort of opinions directly to anyone not white.

[Asteger]

Hmm... A 'white' colleague explained to me that this was the sort of thing that lead him to leave Australia after a few years there and that he felt people there didn't get this about themselves at all. Not having been to either place, I'm still been hoping NZ will fare better.

I'm sure most people will avoid discussion on this on ENZ, but I don't think certain attitudes are absent here either. There have been some very nice posts on places to live and good locations here and there in NZ, but in one comment quite a nice and helpful member remarked that less desirable neighbourhoods had a more multi-cultural mix of people but that you would probably not want them as neighbours if possible. At best it was a clumsy juxtaposition of ideas which I think wouldn't have occured if there was more thought given to the issues.