Highly qualified immigrants from India struggle to find work in New Zealand because of discrimination by employers, according to an academic report released today.

Less than half get jobs in which they can use their qualifications, a study by sociologists at Massey and Waikato universities found.

The lead author, Professor Paul Spoonley, said in a statement it was disappointing to see highly educated, English-speaking Indian migrants struggling to gain employment or experiencing downward mobility in terms of employment and income.

More than 104,000 ethnic Indians live in New Zealand, according to the last census in 2006. More than 5,000 migrants from India were approved for residence in the last fiscal year, ending June 30, the third most after applicants from Britain and China, but many ethnic Indians were included in 3,400 approvals from Fiji.

Spoonley said Indians were some of the most highly qualified of all migrant groups, but their “employment outcomes are not as rosy” as new arrivals from Britain and South Africa.

The report said stories of immigrants interviewed reflected “the widespread presence of discrimination and point towards a general unwillingness to employ immigrants who do not as readily blend into New Zealand’s dominant European culture”.

But it said their persistence and resilience despite these barriers was admirable.

- dpa