Mechanic battling ‘racism, sexism’
‘‘They laugh at me. They ask: ‘Why do you want to do this? This is not a woman’s job’. I just want one chance to prove myself.’’ Rushika Patel
A qualified mechanic says she is being rejected by employers because of her ethnicity and gender.
Indian migrant Rushika Patel, 30, faces deportation if she cannot find work in the next six months. Mrs Patel graduated in July last year with a degree in automotive engineering and has lost count of the jobs she has since missed out on.
The Auckland resident said she was being rejected because she was an Indian woman trying to enter a male-dominated industry.
‘‘From my point of view it’s not discrimination, it’s racism,’’ she said.
‘‘They laugh at me. They ask: ‘Why do you want to do this? This is not a woman’s job’.’’ She is willing to start at the bottom to earn ‘‘Kiwi experience’’ and has even offered to work for free.
‘‘I just want one chance to prove myself,’’ said Mrs Patel, a former service adviser with Hyundai in India.
Mrs Patel’s past qualifications were not recognised here, meaning she had to re-train on a student visa for three years, some- thing that had cost the mother of one $60,000 in international fees. Her husband, Mehul, had worked 70 hours a week as a cleaner at Glenfield Mall to support her studies and their seven-year-old son.
Mr Patel was immensely proud of his wife being only the second woman to graduate from the Unitec automotive degree ‘‘but now is a moment of trouble’’, he said.
Strict immigration laws had allowed Mrs Patel 12 months to secure a job in her qualified industry or else she must return home.
The Patels lived without their son for almost three years after arriving in New Zealand and were now determined to secure a stable life for him on the North Shore. Despite her setbacks Mrs Patel was determined to keep pushing for employment.
‘‘I want to make my career here, I love my work,’’ she said.
Giltrap Wairau service manager John Redwood said a Unitec qualification alone was not enough without further on-site training.
‘‘If they cannot walk the talk then they will not get a job.
‘‘An automotive apprenticeship is a good four years, usually while they are studying,’’ Mr Redwood said.
Two women worked within the service department at Giltrap and Mr Redwood said he preferred to have a mix of genders as women had a ‘‘soothing effect’’ on customers.
‘‘One of the problems Mrs Patel may be facing, and this could be seen as prejudice, is that English is her second language,’’ Mr Redwood said.
‘‘This is not the motor industry being biased, it is the customer. If people are not clearly understood they will get frustrated and we will lose business,’’ he said.
Mr Redwood said he would consider her application, although it would depend on her fluency in English and her ability to ‘‘carry out the work in front of her’’.
‘‘If she is an Indian woman she is likely to be very petite and there is a lot of heavy lifting in this industry. Our staff can be lifting heavy tyres up to 20 times a day so it is restrictive for us to hire women unless they can do that competently themselves,’’ he said.
Mrs Patel, who is fluent in English, believed greater consideration should be given to international students’ chances of employment, rather than simply their economic value as students. ‘‘Why did they give me a visa to study in this field? Why didn’t they stop me at the beginning when they knew there was no work?,’’ she said.