DISEÑO DE MATERIAL DIDÁCTICO

According to the participants, the identities available in the new home country were not quite the same as those they had in their former home countries. They had often been professionals. For example, Simi was a primary teacher in India

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and overseas. Mia was an ECE teacher and manager at an ECE centre in South Korea with more than ten years’ experience. Holly and Emily worked at large companies in China, with tertiary qualifications. Jessica and Lucy worked and made enough money for their overseas trips. Many of the participants reported that they wanted to regain those successful employment identities.

They had imagined identities in their new home. Simi, Mia, and Jessica wanted to become qualified ECE teachers. Unlike Mia, who had previous experience as an ECE teacher, Simi and Jessica foresaw new job opportunities in the ECE sector more than any other field. This might be related to the immigration policy which promoted ECE occupations due to the shortage of ECE teachers in Aotearoa NZ. At the beginning of our interviews, Jessica had applied to an ECE programme. Without any specific career in mind, Holly reported that she would become someone who could bridge China and Aotearoa NZ. Lucy was a qualified beautician, and she wanted to find a job. Unlike others, who had rather clear hopes for the future, Emily, who was relatively new in Aotearoa NZ, had only a rough idea of what she wanted for the future. Each participant’s hopes for the future are described below.

Simi successfully obtained an ECE qualification and had been working for many years. Her appointment as a governing committee member at an ECE centre was an important event which was described in Section 4.6. The responsibility in the committee motivated her to see something more for the future as shown in the excerpt below.

It was something additional. Yes, my work is still there [the ECE centre where she worked full-time]. The centre [a newly developed community-based ECE centre] offered me . . . . It has been one and a half month working there now. So yes, things have been so busy . . . . Yes, I was talking to my husband. . . . “I am getting tired now. I am getting old. I want to do something that is not physically demanding.” So my husband saying, “You go back to studying and do something.” But I said, “I don't want to study.” I enjoy, but I don't know.

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Maybe opportunities would come up . . . something involving paper work and advising things . . . . Something will show up as always . . . . (Interview 8) The participants’ imagined identities were the outcome of negotiation, and they were changing. Mia’s loss of status as a registered ECE teacher in Aotearoa NZ was due to the upgraded English language requirements that challenged her imagined identity. Her imagined identity changed to running an ECE centre which she could use the facilities for Korean school on weekends. Mia’s focus shifted from an ECE teacher to a manager of a multicultural ECE centre. As a relatively new migrant, Jessica hoped to enrol in an ECE degree programme. As described in Section 4.1, the process to enter the programme was challenging in many ways. She then enrolled in a different programme to obtain her imagined identity as someone with a proper career. Holly’s hope to become a businesswoman to liaise between China and Aotearoa NZ changed to considering various options and one of them was studying the Bible at a tertiary institute. Emily had not articulated a specific imagined identity. Yet, she began to hope for a career in the future because she became involved in many new communities which gave her joy and fulfilment. Lucy’s imagined identity was an employed beauty therapist in a “Kiwi” salon even though she was self-employed at the time of interviews.

The participants’ imagined identities were not only about future careers. Many of the participants wanted to be viewed as successful Asian migrants. Successful migrant stories were identified in the stories of Simi, Mia, and Holly, who were relatively early immigrants to Aotearoa NZ from Asia. As described in Section 4.6, Simi considered herself lucky compared to other migrants. She commented that both she and her husband continued working as professionals in Aotearoa NZ. Mia also commented that she and her husband were the first Koreans working for Aotearoa New Zealanders, outside of the Korean community. The participants also wanted to contribute to Aotearoa NZ society as Asian migrants. For example, Holly wanted to play a role as someone who could bridge Aotearoa NZ and China, as an interpreter. Mia considered her involvement in a Korean school and an NZ-Korea friendship society was her way of introducing Korean culture and language to Aotearoa NZ, to enrich multiculturalism.

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The participants hoped to be successful in raising children. Stories of being a successful mother were seen in the recounts of Simi, Mia, Emily and Lucy. Simi mentioned the sacrifices for her children that she had left the comfort of her home country behind as well as a good career, family, and friends. She reported that her time and sacrifice in Aotearoa NZ would have been in vain if her children were not successful. Mia similarly commented that she could not have raised both of her children to be pharmacists if they had stayed in Korea. She was regarded as a successful migrant due to the success of her children. The other participants, who had younger children than Simi and Mia, also commented on being successful mothers in that they were raising their children to be successful. As mentioned earlier in Chapter 4, Emily hoped her children to be educated in Aotearoa NZ, and Lucy decided to stay in Aotearoa NZ for the benefit of her son. Their imagined identities as successful Asian migrants and mothers as well as having legitimate careers were all geared towards becoming a valuable member of the Aotearoa NZ society.