Immigration changes create environment ‘worse than Middle East’ for some migrant workers, says immigration adviser representative

Immigration Minister Michael Wood made an announcement about changes to residency visa criteria.

Licensed Immigration Adviser Association chairperson Jens Mueller says some of the Government’s planned changes to immigration settings will turn more migrants into temporary guest workers than the old system did.

Mueller said there were some positives within the Government’s recent immigration announcement about skilled migration, but there were also some worrying details “hidden" in the consultation document that accompanied it.

At the time of the announcement the focus was on changes to the existing points system, but less attention was paid to another set of proposed changes that would drastically alter the visa system in future.

The points system allocates points for skills and other characteristics. If a migrant meets the points threshold then they qualify for residence.

Wood has proposed simplifying the system. Instead of having to meet a 160 or 180-point threshold migrants would need to initially meet the threshold of six.

But because of the way the new simplified points are proposed to be allocated, many migrants will need to spend three years in New Zealand with a single employer in order to qualify for residency.

Proposed changes to visa settings could leave migrant workers in a more tenuous position.

Even then there will be no guarantee of residency because a future Government could change the points threshold at any time during those three years.

And a new condition attached to work visas means migrants will have to leave the country after that period if they do not get residency.

"This is worse than even the Middle East system of never allowing residence and making workers temporary objects,” Mueller said.

“It creates a sub-group of migrants who do not know whether they have a career or not, and are the most temporary of all.

“These workers will be considered a temporary commodity and receive the least care and concern from their employers."

Jens Mueller says the changed system could be ‘worse than the Middle East’ in some respects.

Mueller’s interpretation of what the rules would mean for migrant workers has been backed up opposition parties National, ACT and the Green Party.

Green Party Immigration spokesperson Ricardo Menéndez March said the changes effectively created a “two-tier migration system” with some migrants fast-tracked but the majority enroled in a three-year "guest worker scheme” with no clear pathway to residency.

“We are going back to the status quo with a few tweaks and some of those smaller tweaks do entrench the worst parts of our immigration system where migrant workers are treated as expendable units to provide a short-term sugar rush to specific industries."

Ricardo Menéndez March says the changes entrench the worst parts of our immigration system.

ACT Party Immigration spokesperson James McDowall said the Government had continued on with its mistake of treating migrants like “commodities and work units” - and said the proposed changes would be “outrageous” if they became entrenched policy.

“If you read the reasoning behind it, they don’t want workers who have ‘no realistic pathway to residency'.

“But that’s not the worker’s fault, that’s the Government’s fault for making residency so tricky and so difficult, and for constantly raising the bar."

National Party spokesperson Erica Stanford said the changes would ultimately harm New Zealand’s economy.

“Labour’s plan to limit workers to a three-year time limit with no chance of ever gaining residence will give skilled migrants just another reason to go elsewhere and our labour shortages will persist through 2023”.

James McDowall says the Government says the proposed changes are ‘outrageous’.

Wood defended the changes and said it was part of the Government’s strategy to create a high wage, low emissions economy that offered economic security to people in good times and bad.

Wood also argued the Government was motivated by a desire not to treat migrants as "economic units" and provide "clarity and certainty to help migrants understand what they need to achieve residency".

"Under the previous system migrants were strung along, with no clarity about when and how they could achieve residency."

But March said there was a “deep disconnect” between the Government’s stated aims and its actions when it came to these changes.

He said there was no certainty for migrants in the new settings because both Labour and National had repeatedly moved the goalposts for residency in the past.

Mueller also criticised changes to partner work rights that would mean partners of people on work visas would not be allowed to work.

Michael Wood says the changes come from a desire not to see migrants as economic units.

“Bad employers will know that the migrant is totally dependent on one single income and this creates a perfect breeding ground for bad employers to be exploitative."

Wood said it made no sense to tightly control the inflow of skilled migrants if partners were allowed in without controls.

March said not granting partners work rights only created the conditions for exploitation, but also for domestic violence because one partner in a relationship would be legally reliant on the other for their income.

“If you speak to most people at the frontline who work with migrant families ... [there] is outrage at the fact that we are creating the conditions for family violence to be more frequent.

“Every minister is supposed to be committed to Te Aorerekura - the National Strategy for the prevention of family and sexual violence.

“I would say that Michael Wood is undermining that strategy, and I will be working to try and scrap this appalling change.”

The proposed changes are currently out for public consultation.

Source; Dileepa Fonseka, Stuff