22/04/11 - Immigrant business owner booted out of NZ

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Six years ago Martyn Payne moved to New Zealand. He came on an entrepreneur's visa, had money and was keen to spend it here.

He says he's put about $700,000 into his business. He chose Kapiro in the far north, bought a rundown garage and turned it into a thriving business, employing locals.

He brought with him his young son, and later his daughter and grandchildren followed, but now, six years on, Mr Payne's being deported.

"The man came to tell me I’ve got to leave - he did give me a couple of weeks, but he did say, 'You will be able to visit in six months - but sponsored by someone.' It does feel like I’m being treated like a criminal," says Mr Payne.

"That leaves a very bad taste in my mouth."

His son has already left, and his daughter has no choice but to stay. She has children here now, and will run the family business on her own.

She's not sure how she will cope – she says she can't even change a spark plug.

Mr Payne is the fix it man, the guy the community relies on, and he is being taken away from his most important role - head of his family. But why?

A medical examination six years ago revealed Mr Payne had a heart issue. Immigration believes he might require healthcare in the future, and it's not prepared to pay, so Mr Payne is being deported.

He had an operation in England and passed the test.

“The operation was a success - I got a letter from the specialist saying I was fully recovered,” Mr Payne said.

But four years later the Department of Immigration requested another medical

"They asked me to have another test. I had a fibrillation, which means the heart beat is irregular, which means I have to have a jump start."

He disagreed with the findings, and went to a doctor who specialises in heart disease. Dr Brendon Wong said although Mr Payne has a dilated impaired heart muscle, he is coping well.

Mr Payne says he's prepared to pay for follow-up tests, but there is no evidence he will need heart surgery in the future.

Despite the support of thousands of locals it seems Mr Payne has lost the battle to stay. He flies out of the country on Saturday leaving behind everything he owns - more importantly his daughter and seven grandchildren.

It will be six months before he is able to even return for a visit.

Local MPs John Carter and Shane Jones have lobbied Minister Kate Wilkinson on Mr Payne's behalf with no success.

His community staunchly stands behind him.

"Every customer comes in saying, 'How is it going?', and it's like you almost need a script. You know that they care… It's like one big, huge family," Mr Payne said.

It's a family that will be torn apart this weekend, but all the while the man from Sussex, looking for a life in Kapiro, can still share a joke or two.

"I've had three offers of marriage - its absolutely true! I said a) I’m already married and b) it doesn't work like that. The local iwi at Te Tii offered to take me into their family… I didn't think it would take any sway with Immigration - but humbling to say the least."

(Source 3 News)

Our comment:

Health reasons may indeed be a reason to decline a residence application. In this case however, common sense and empathy should prevail as the person in question delivers enormous benefits to New Zealand through investment in a company, operating a business in a rural area, providing employment of locals and through being an active integrated member of the New Zealand community! An example where anticipations were created (approval of the visa at the initial stages), an example where immigration medical instructions for temporary visas and permanent visas do not link, an excellent example of bureaucracy at his highest and worst level!

21/04/11 - Economist tips good times for Auckland

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The Auckland economy is heading into a sweet spot as the region benefits from low interest rates and a low exchange rate with the Australian dollar, says a leading economist.

The recession hit Auckland earlier and harder than New Zealand as a whole, but it was already out-performing the rest of the country in terms of economic activity through the last three quarters of 2010, said Goldman Sachs economist Philip Borkin.

Auckland is especially sensitive to financial conditions, which are at their most stimulatory since July 2009.

Mr Borkin said the city's economy should be growing by between 3 and 3.5 per cent by the end of the year.

Growth over the entire year could average around 2.5 per cent, compared with the 1.5 he expects for the country as a whole, which is more optimistic than the consensus 1.1 per cent.

By contrast, he said, Canterbury had been hit by the February earthquake, Wellington faced fiscal belt-tightening and, while rural regions might start to benefit from record-high commodity prices, farmers still appeared focused on debt reduction.

The out-performance is most notable in the housing market, with annual house price growth running at 1.8 per cent in Auckland but falling by 1.8 per cent nationwide.

Mr Borkin estimated that demand for housing in Auckland was growing by around 9000 homes a year while new supply, as reflected in dwelling consents issued, was just 3600.

He said that while net immigration was falling, there might be some internal migration from Christchurch.

"However, we are not expecting Auckland house prices to suddenly race away. Affordability remains an issue. But it is quite possible house prices could be rising by around 5 per cent a year by the end of the year."

That would make people feel more comfortable about their financial situations and boost consumer spending, Mr Borkin said.

When combined with a boost from the Rugby World Cup, he estimated that would underpin growth in retail sales in Auckland of 2.1 per cent over 2011 in real terms, compared with just 1 per cent nationally.

But he cautioned that if demographics were driving Auckland house price out-performance, then rental inflation would also be likely to rise.

"Higher rents, all else being equal, leave less cash for discretionary spending."

Another risk to this relatively sunny outlook is that the Reserve Bank might raise the official cash rate sooner than the March quarter, which Mr Borkin expects, as do a majority of market economists.

Yet another risk is that households remain cautious. "It has been our long-held belief that once house prices showed firmer signs of stabilisation, consumers would feel a little more comfortable boosting spending levels," he said.

"However, there is the possibility that there has been a permanent altering in household behaviour, and caution and balance-sheet repair prevail for a little longer yet."

A two-paced economy, even if only for a short period, makes the Reserve Bank's job more difficult. The official cash rate is a one-size-fits-all type of instrument.

Mr Borkin said the bank would have to set monetary policy on a national basis, suggesting it would be the new year before it raised rates.

... but watch out for higher interest rates

New Zealand's economic recovery may accelerate in the second half of the year amid rebuilding after the Christchurch earthquake, increasing the chance of higher interest rates, according to AMP Capital Investors.

"It may be a situation where you have a flat first half of the year and then the rebuilding-recovery story takes place in the second half," said senior economist Bob Cunneen.

Mr Cunneen forecast the economy might expand about 1.5 per cent this year, faster than the 1.3 per cent Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard forecast last month. The central bank cut borrowing costs to a record 2.5 per cent on March 10 to bolster confidence after the February 22 earthquake.

An economic rebound may prompt Dr Bollard to raise interest rates late this year which, along with rising commodity prices, may buoy demand for the currency, pushing it to between US80c and US85c.

"You need the commodities story to stay intact, but you need monetary policy to start to tighten," Mr Cunneen said. For that to happen, "the governor has to take the view that economic activity is going to be accelerating and that's probably not likely until the end of this year".

(Source NZ Herald, Brian Fallow)

20/04/11 - Pastor acted as immigration agent

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When Toni Tulafono approached her pastor for help over relationship issues she was having with her partner, she was surprised to be offered "immigration advice" instead.

Ms Tulafono said when she revealed her Samoan partner was in New Zealand unlawfully last year, Pastor Kauapi Lutelu Salanoa told her that for a $200 "donation" he could assist her partner with getting New Zealand residency.

She did not accept his offer, but is aware of several Pacific Islanders who did engage the Seventh Day Adventist pastor as their immigration agent.

Yesterday, Lutelu, a pastor at a church in Avondale who also claims to be a prince from Tuvalu, pleaded guilty in the Auckland District Court to six charges of giving immigration advice without a licence.

The offending happened between September 2009 and last September. One of the charges is representative, which relates to further offending.

Lutelu faced a further three charges, but his lawyer Sanjay Patel said he understood they would be dropped at sentencing.

Outside court, Lutelu said he had "helped" more than 200 people, mostly overstayers from the Pacific Island, with their immigration matters since 2001.

"As their spiritual leader, I feel it is my responsibility to help them when they are facing a problem," Lutelu said.

"I am not a criminal, and would not be seen as one by the previous Government. I have been turned into a criminal only because of legislation changes made by this Government."

Since May last year, people giving immigration advice are required by law to be licensed under the Immigration Advisers Licensing Act.

Under the law, unlicensed advisers face fines of up to $100,000 and or imprisonment of up to seven years.

"I have applied five, six times to get a licence, but the authorities have told me no, you have to wait," said Lutelu.

"During that time, there were so many people still coming to me for help and are so desperate, so what was I to do?"

He denied charging them a fee, but said many offered "cash donations" which he used to pay the clerk.

The relative of a Cook Islands overstayer, who did not want to be named, said he went to Lutelu for help in 2009 because he thought it was "only natural" and a "sensible thing" to do.

"We can't afford the thousands of dollars in fees that licensed immigration advisers and lawyers charge," he said.

"Most Pacific people are Christians, devout Christians, and it is only natural for us to turn to our church leaders for help. For me, it was just a sensible thing to do."

Community magistrate Joana Sihamu asked for a pre-sentencing report from probation and a psychological report.

Lutelu was remanded on bail to reappear for sentencing in June.

The Immigration Advisers Authorities said yesterday that it would not make statements or comments on the matter until after sentencing.

Lutelu was told he could not contact the complainants and he must report to the Mangere police station twice a week.

In an unrelated case last week, another man Gerard Otimi was found guilty of running a passport scam preying on Samoan and Tongan overstayers who paid $500 to be "adopted" into his Maori hapu for a "right to remain in New Zealand".

The Herald also reported last Saturday of a second scam, where Pacific Island overstayers are paying up to $370 for "worthless" Aotearoa citizenship certificates sold by a self-styled Maori chief Amato Akarana-Rewi from his Otara home garage.

(Source NZ Herald)

Our comment:

When in need of immigration advise, please check if the person you are dealing with is a Licenced Immigration Adviser. Please check here!

16/04/11 - Editorial: China migrants changing us for the better

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Until 24 years ago, New Zealand did not admit many immigrants who were not British or Polynesian.

In the late 1980s, as the country was opened to goods and investment from anywhere, immigration policy likewise changed from ethnic protection to economic liberalism.

Migrants from anywhere with sufficient capital or skills became welcome.

Since then many have come from China, initially from Hong Kong when Britain was preparing to relinquish its colony in 1997 and Taiwan, and more recently from mainland China after a relaxation of its travel restrictions in 1999.

Partial economic liberalisation within the communist state had created free-enterprise zones that became the world's factories. With rising incomes and strong domestic savings, Chinese have been able to travel, study, migrate and build new communities around the Pacific.

New Zealand, particularly Auckland, has attracted a fair share of them. There are 10 times more Chinese living in Auckland than there were 25 years ago.

They have become New Zealand's third-largest ethnicity, proportionately more than in Australia and second only to Canada.

Over the past week the Herald has been taking a close look at a community we need to know better. Our reports confirm impressions that the new Chinese residents are highly mobile.

A survey last June found that one in five of them had been absent for at least six months. They retain a firm foothold in China and regard themselves primarily as Chinese.

A study by Auckland University Professor of Asian Studies Manying Ip found two-thirds identify only with China.

Most of the rest identify with both countries and very few think of themselves primarily as New Zealanders.

This is less alarming than it sounds; any born and bred New Zealander living permanently in another country is likely to retain the same allegiance. It may take a generation or two for even a dual identity to form.

An older well-established Chinese community in New Zealand is wary of the more recent migration. Tensions are bound to occur when migrants from a different culture arrive in large numbers but New Zealanders generally appear to have responded well.

When East Asian names predominate at Auckland school prizegivings, their diligence and family discipline are recognised if not emulated. All Asians suffer slurs about driving behaviour and crime, which our series suggests are unfair. Asian accident and crime rates are no higher than their proportion of the population.

Chinese immigration was a powerful contributor to the housing boom in the five years to 2007 and China's growing appetite for Australian and New Zealand export commodities has largely sustained our economies through the global financial crisis.

But China, as Australia has discovered, is not content to be a buyer of raw commodities, it wants a stake in their production too. This week brought another bid from China for the 16 Crafar farms, and a buy-in to PGG Wrightson has given Beijing's Agria control of New Zealand's largest supplier of farm services.

Direct investment may pose greater challenges than imports and immigration but a large expatriate community is changing us.

Its living, travelling and leisure habits are boosting Auckland's housing density, public transport and inner-city life. Chinese are a visible and significant part of this country now, enriching it in every way.

(Source NZ Herald)

14/04/11 - International visitor numbers stable in February

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New Zealand welcomed 268,259 international visitors during February, an increase of 0.2 per cent compared to the same month last year, according to Statistics New Zealand figures released today.

Visitors numbers from Australia (up 2.5 per cent), the US (up 0.8 per cent), Canada (up 3.4 per cent), Germany (up 2.3 per cent) China (up 6.0 per cent), Japan (up 4.5 per cent) and South Korea (up 3.8 per cent) were slightly higher in February 2011 than the same month last year. However, growth in overall numbers was tempered by a decline in visitors from the UK (down 10.2 per cent).

Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive Kevin Bowler said the earthquake in Christchurch on February 22 would be a factor in the slower than usual 0.2 per cent growth in arrivals during February, although a clearer picture of the impact on visitor numbers would not be available until the March and April figures were released.

"Reduced growth in visitor numbers was inevitable; however the arrival figures for February remained reasonably stable. The earthquake occurred relatively late in February, so while it is likely to have had an impact, three quarters of the month had passed. We will know more about the impact after next month's figures."

According to the Statistics New Zealand figures, there was a 5.6 per cent decrease (7,925 people) in the number of visitors who came to New Zealand for a holiday during February 2011, compared to February 2010. That was offset by an increase in people arriving to visit relatives or friends or for business purposes.

Mr Bowler cautioned that the earthquake in Christchurch and the subsequent events in Japan in March were likely to have a more significant impact on arrival numbers during March and April, but said he was confident growth would return in the lead-up to Rugby World Cup 2011.

"It has been a tough time for many operators, however Tourism New Zealand has put in a great deal of work to promote the fact that New Zealand remains a great holiday destination following the earthquake, including increasing advertising, marketing and international media activity, Mr Bowler said.

"I'm confident that with a ski season around the corner, new airline links coming on stream and 85,000 visitors expected for Rugby World Cup 2011 we will achieve good visitor numbers for 2011."

New Zealand has welcomed 2,534,349 international visitors in the year to February 2011, an increase of 2.1 per cent compared to the year to February 2010.

International visitor arrivals for February 2011:

Country Arrivals for Feb - Change from Feb 2010 - Arrivals full year to Feb - Change for full year to Feb

• Australia - 93,600 - Up 2.5% - 1,123,944 - Up 2.2%
• UK - 36,350 - Down 10.2% - 226,721-  Down 11.5%
• USA - 25,500 - Up 0.8% - 189,732 - Down 4.0%
• China - 18,000 - Up 6.0% - 128,862 - Up 25.9%
• Japan - 10,425 - Up 4.5% - 89,055 - Up 11.8%
• South Korea - 5,475 Up 3.8% 68,031 Up 23.7%
• Germany - 9,875 - Up 2.3% - 64,921 - Down 1.1%
• Canada - 7,500 - Up 3.4% - 49,493-  Up 1.6%
• Total (for all markets) - 268,259 - Up 0.2% - 2,534,249 - Up 2.1%

(Source Tourism New Zealand)

14/04/11 - Migration remains weak

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A growing outflow of people to Australia continues to curtail the population gain from net migration.

In February the net inflow of permanent or long-term migrants, including returning expatriates, was 2172, or 470 when seasonally adjusted, Statistics New Zealand said.

While that is up marginally on the net gain of 440 in January, it is well below the average monthly gain of 700 over the previous year and the average of 1000 a month over the past 20 years.

In the first two months of this year the net outflow of people to Australia has averaged 3280, up from a monthly average of 1850 in the last three months of 2010.

In the year ended February the net population gain from migration was 8200, down from 21,600 the year before and one-third lower than the average 12,000 over the past 20 years.

The main sources of arrivals were Australia (15,700, two-thirds of whom were New Zealand citizens), Britain (14,200), India (7300) and China (6600).

"Given the upheaval in Christchurch following the earthquake on February 22, and the relative strength of the Australian labour market and incomes, we think that the weakening trend is likely to be sustained over the next year or two as gross outflows continue to trend higher," Deutsche Bank chief economist Darren Gibbs said.

"We would not be surprised to see the annual net inflow fall to zero over the coming year."

(Source NZ Herald, Brian Fallow)

12/04/11 - Daily China Southern flights boost for economy

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New Zealand’s tourism sector will benefit from China Southern Airlines’ decision to fly daily from Guangzhou to Auckland, says Associate Tourism Minister Jonathan Coleman.

China Southern has confirmed that later this year it will increase its three-times a week service to daily flights. Dr Coleman says this move is expected to increase the number of visitors on China Southern Airlines to 50,000 a year, worth an estimated $150 million to the economy.

‘’China Southern’s decision to increase its schedule to daily flights is a show of commitment in the New Zealand airline market. It also opens up many opportunities for New Zealand tourism in China.

‘’China is one of New Zealand's fastest growing visitor markets. 123,000 people visited last year - up nearly 17 percent, with those visitors contributing around $365 million a year to the New Zealand economy. Tourism New Zealand has been working with China Southern to promote the new route and the benefits of visiting New Zealand for leisure and business purposes. ‘’

China Southern Airlines’ first flight from Guangzhou landed at Auckland Airport on Saturday.

Dr Coleman says by June 2011, Immigration New Zealand will have a Visa Acceptance Centre (VAC) operational in Guangzhou and VACs will also be established simultaneously in Beijing and Shanghai to meet the increased demand for immigration services.

(Source Beehive, Jonathan Coleman)

09/04/11 - The kiwi and the dragon

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In some ways, Chinese influence in New Zealand has grown faster and more strongly than anywhere else in the world. In a special Herald series over the next week we look at what that means for this country. Today, Simon Collins gives an overview of the impact of China on New Zealand's economic and cultural landscape

Some time in the late 1990s, Tina Peters looked out of her car at an intersection and realised that almost all the other faces she could see were Asian.

Tina, a nurse, moved with her family from Papatoetoe to the fast-growing Botany area 12 years ago. Suddenly their ethnic landscape switched from the traditional Kiwi mix of European and Polynesian to include a surprising number of Chinese.

"With our children there has been that period of confusion, of bewilderment, for a little while of absolute fear thinking, 'I don't understand this'," she said at a pot-luck dinner at a Chinese neighbour's home on Neighbours Day last month.

"I didn't know how to communicate. You are missing the communication, and then there's that fear of, 'Oh my God, is my country disappearing?"'

New Zealand's ethnic Chinese population jumped more than seven-fold in the 20 years to the 2006 census, from 19,600 to 147,600.

In Auckland it rose almost 10-fold, from 10,500 to 97,400. Parts of Botany, Epsom and New Lynn are now more than 30 per cent Chinese.

Sociologist Paul Spoonley says the scale of this ethnic transformation, like the scale of New Zealand economic reforms in the same period, was unparalleled globally.

"The mix in Canada and Australia is almost identical, but they had much larger Chinese populations to start with," he says.

And of course this local ethnic change came just as the Chinese homeland burst on to the world stage. Two decades ago, even including Hong Kong, China produced only 2 per cent of global output and ranked 11th in the world. Last year, with 9 per cent of world output, it passed Japan to become the second-biggest economy on Earth.

Three years this week after signing a landmark free trade deal, China has already surpassed the US as New Zealand's biggest trading partner outside Australasia for both exports and imports, our leading source of international students, our second-biggest source of immigrants after Britain, and our fourth-biggest source of tourists.

Over the next week the Herald will report on how these dramatic shifts are transforming our economy and our society. In some respects Chinese influence has grown more strongly here than in any other country outside Asia.

Economically, our exports to China have leapt ahead through the past three years from just under $2 billion to $5 billion a year, when even Australia's exports to China only just more than doubled and China's overall imports stuttered through the global recession.

Dairy exports have quadrupled from $450 million to $1.9 billion. China is now by far our biggest dairy customer and the main driver behind recent record dairy prices.

Fonterra China managing director Philip Turner says this is only partly because of the scandal with melamine-contaminated Chinese-made milk which killed at least six babies in 2008, turning more sophisticated consumers towards imported milk.

"To a large extent this is simply demand exceeding supply," he says. Although Chinese milk production has grown exponentially from 6000 tonnes to 35,000 in the past decade, demand has grown even faster. Fonterra now supplies 5 per cent of the Chinese market.

Wood exports have quadrupled too, from $240 million to $1 billion a year since 2007. Timber Industry Federation head Brent Coffey says most of this is raw logs to feed China's property boom.

Our imports from China have grown rather less quickly because of our recession, from $5.6 billion to $6.9 billion. But the longer-term shift from costly local production to cheap Chinese imports, played out in extreme form here since import protection was largely abolished in the 1980s, has seen dramatic falls in the prices of clothing, footwear, toys and homeware.

Arguably, despite the loss of jobs in formerly protected industries, these cheap Chinese imports have made us all better off - at least in the short term.

"For 15 years up to 2007-08, the world enjoyed very stable prices and abundant capital with resulting cheap interest rates, and both of those things were very largely China's doing," says economist Srikanta Chatterjee.

"The Chinese effectively said: we'll lend you the money to buy these goods; therefore we had low interest rates. That is the very great advantage that we enjoyed."

This may not last. As China's own wages and living standards rise, its massive surpluses may diminish and it may have less surplus capital to lend.

The rest of the world will then need to either cut spending or raise output to live within our means.

China's abundant capital helped whiteware giant Haier buy a 20 per cent stake in Fisher & Paykel Appliances two years ago. Another Chinese company, Agria, is bidding for 50.01 per cent of our leading farm service firm, PGG Wrightson.

Overall Chinese investment is still minuscule at $5.6 billion or less than 2 per cent of total foreign investment. But the Chinese company Natural Dairy's failed bid for the 16 Crafar family dairy farms shows that Chinese investors are looking for opportunities in food and other natural resources.

Still a highly controlled society, China was slow to open up overseas travel. New Zealand and Australia became the first countries outside Asia to get "approved destination status"; this was only in 1999.

Total outbound travellers from China more than quintupled worldwide in the past decade to 56 million last year. The numbers going to both Australia and New Zealand almost quadrupled to 454,000 for Australia and 123,000 for New Zealand, propelling China into fourth place for visitors to both countries, behind each other, Britain and the US.

Today's launch of three weekly China Southern Airlines flights between Guangzhou (Canton) and Auckland adds capacity for an extra 25,000 visitors.

The airline already flies to Sydney and Melbourne, added Brisbane last November and plans 50 flights a week to six Australian cities by 2013.

There has also been an explosion in the numbers of Chinese students abroad. Visas for new Chinese fee-paying students here leapt from just 46 in 1998-99 to almost 20,000 in 2001-02, lifting the numbers here to a peak of 56,000 in 2003.

Anatole Bogatski, who was the Auckland Chamber of Commerce's international manager at the time and later established his own language school, says New Zealand was the first country to abandon quotas on Chinese students.

"We had a very low bar to cross and relatively easy immigration rules on converting their student visa into permanent residence," he says.

The boom collapsed almost as quickly as it occurred, when Education Minister Trevor Mallard made students prove that they could pay their future course fees and living costs.

Two language schools, Carich and Modern Age, closed in 2004 leaving students stranded.

New Chinese student visas plunged to under 2500 in 2005-06 before climbing back to a modest 4700 last year. Total Chinese fee-paying students have stabilised at around 21,000, or 22 per cent of all international students.

This reversal is purely a New Zealand story, as Chinese students studying overseas kept rising worldwide from under 300,000 in 2003 to almost 1.3 million last year. In Australia they increased from 48,000 in 2002 to 168,000 last year.

More broadly, like India, Europe and more recently New Zealand, China has long had a sizeable diaspora of citizens who have left to seek better lives elsewhere.

Apart from a handful of 19th century gold miners, New Zealand barred its doors to those migrants by denying permits to non-British citizens with few exceptions right up to 1987, when the policy changed to seek skilled people and rich "business investors" from anywhere.

The change came just as Britain was preparing to hand Hong Kong back to China in 1997. Hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong's elite sought refuge abroad - 380,000 went to Canada alone between 1980 and 2001, and 25,400 arrived in New Zealand as permanent or long-term migrants in the decade up to 1997.

A similar exodus from Taiwan brought almost 20,000 migrants to New Zealand in the same period. And then, just as many of the Hong Kong and Taiwanese migrants actually started going home again from all countries, China's 1999 relaxation of travel restrictions sparked a new outflow from China itself. Chinese permanent and long-term arrivals here jumped from 3500 in 1999 to 16,000 in 2002.

This new influx was dominated by students and their families, and fell away again as the student boom collapsed. By last year China, including Hong Kong, was back down to only our third-biggest net source of immigrants behind India and Britain.

But the net effect of the two waves of immigrants was to lift the total ethnic Chinese share of New Zealand's population to 3.7 per cent by the 2006 census, the second-highest in the OECD behind Canada (3.9 per cent) and ahead of Australia (3.2 per cent). The 1.9 per cent of our population born in mainland China is higher than for any other OECD country.

Like all modern migrants, the Chinese are mobile. A fifth of all the Chinese approved for residence in the six years to 2009, and 40 per cent of the Taiwanese, had been absent for at least six months as at last June, compared with 14 per cent of migrants from Britain.

A 2007-09 study by Asian studies professor Manying Ip found that two-thirds of ethnic Chinese NZ citizens or permanent residents still identified only with their home country, and most of the rest identified with both countries. Only four out of 78 identified solely with New Zealand.

She found that many families alternated between their homelands and New Zealand or Australia, often getting educated here, returning to China or Hong Kong to work or to care for ageing parents, then coming back to New Zealand for their own children's education.

"The new Chinese migrants are astute and wish to keep all options open," she says.

Joe and Marianne Noma, an older Chinese couple at the Neighbours Day gathering in Botany, originally migrated to Melbourne in 1985 and still have a home there as well as in Auckland. Their son works with them in their property development business here, but their daughter is in Melbourne and they may go back there.

But Lisa Chu, who came here with her parents when she was 6 in 1986, may stay here with her Malay/European/Maori fiance, engineer Shariman Saad. She wants her future children to learn Chinese, but regards herself as a "Kiwi".

Their Neighbours Day host, Pastor Samuel Chong, who brought his family here from Malaysia eight years ago, says he has committed his life to New Zealand but is also proudly Chinese. "When I received the citizenship certificate they said, in a letter, you don't have to put down your own culture," he says. "It's so kind."

Chong says their Botany street has five Chinese families, four from Korea, two from India, a Filipino and about 20 Europeans.

Twelve years on, Tina Peters has become used to the changes.

"When we moved from where we were and came up here we started being that little bit more integrated and talking to everyone and having a bit more courage - well, this is how it is, we'd better start talking to people," she says.

Her husband John, who works with Chinese colleagues as a scientist at Middlemore Hospital, says the change "has not been negative at all".

"We have learned about the food and different cultures," he says.

When their daughter graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree at Auckland University about eight years ago, almost all her fellow graduates were Chinese. She and her husband now live in Singapore and plan to teach their children both Chinese and Japanese to equip them for the modern world.

Gradually our culture is changing. Saad and Chu buy takeaways from a variety of countries and enjoy Saturday night markets at the Pakuranga shopping centre. "It's Chinatown," Saad says.

Chinese businesses have sprung up in growing suburbs such as Botany and Albany, and have revitalised older parts of Auckland such as Dominion Rd and Northcote.

Tina Peters says Hong Kong and Taiwanese investors drove up local house prices in the 1990s.

"Every time we went to buy a house we were vying with five or six Chinese families," she says.

"We would put in an offer and they would just go over the top. Then you find out they had bought three of them. Of course house prices just went whoosh."

But the migrant investors were less noticeable by the time Saad and Chu bought their house four years ago. Indeed as a developer, Joe Noma believes Chinese builders are holding down new housing costs.

"We sell [building sites] to builders. In the last two years virtually 80 to 90 per cent are bought by Chinese builders," he says.

"They work hard. They work on Sunday, they work late in the evening. There's no such thing as 9 to 5."

But Dave Brown, who represents Auckland on the Certified Builders Association board, believes Chinese builders predominate only in the Botany/Dannemora area where many of the developers are also Chinese.

"They are prepared to work hard and are pretty competitive," he says. "But I'll stick my neck out and say I don't think they are taking work off New Zealand guys."

Hard-working Chinese students are changing the culture in our schools too. In 2009, 8.7 per cent of Asians who passed level 3 NCEA achieved with excellence, compared to 5.3 per cent of Europeans, 1.5 per cent of Maori and 0.5 per cent of Pacific students.

The Rev Stuart Vogel of the Auckland Chinese Presbyterian Church recalls resentment in the early years when Chinese students started "sweeping all the prizes" at his children's school, Mt Roskill Grammar. "Then people came to realise that they do the work for it. If you want the prize you have to do the work," he says.

At Auckland University, Ip says her students now work much harder than when she started teaching there in 1982 - due to course fees and a tougher job market as well as Chinese rivals.

"It was much more relaxed at that time, students negotiated about deadlines," she says. "That would not be allowed now."

In much the same way, Chinese preferences for apartment living and for large houses on small sections have contributed, along with rising land prices, to the shrinkage of the Kiwi quarter-acre section.

"Most of us are from the city and we don't know gardening," explains Pastor Chong.

The immigrants have helped expand public transport. Asians accounted for 82 per cent of the increased use of buses and trains by Aucklanders commuting to work between the 1991 and 2006 censuses. The census does not count journeys for study, but a glance into almost any term-time bus into central Auckland shows the effect of Asian students.

Of course Asian migrants have added to road traffic too, accounting for 38 per cent of Auckland's increased commuting to work by car between 1991 and 2006. Nationally, Transport Ministry figures show Asian drivers were involved in 9 per cent of all crashes in 2009, exactly equal to their share of the population.

Although many migrants are still not working in the fields where they qualified, some are breaking into the professions. Just over 5 per cent of our medical doctors are Chinese.

Local-born Chinese writers such as 2010 NZ Post Book Awards winner Alison Wong and film-maker Roseanne Liang have won recognition in mainstream Kiwi culture, and Chinese faces are now taken for granted on the TV news and in popular shows such as Masterchef.

It has been harder going in politics, with Labour's list MP Raymond Huo the sole Chinese MP since Pansy Wong resigned last year. There are no Chinese on the new Auckland Council and only three out of 149 people on local boards: Peter Chan in Henderson-Massey, Lily Ho in Whau and Wayne Huang in Howick.

Arguably Pacific people were only really accepted as New Zealanders when rugby stars such as Michael Jones and Tana Umaga started playing for the All Blacks. The Chinese may never make the All Blacks but sport can still provide links into mainstream society, as Huang found in February when he got the Howick Local Board to sponsor a visiting Chinese martial arts group.

On the other hand, he could not get the board to write an invitation letter to an 800-strong group from a major Chinese steelmaker who wanted to visit here after a reward trip to Australia. They didn't come.

"We lose a lot of opportunities like that," he says. "They need respect. They need to feel welcome."

In Botany, Pastor Chong believes cross-cultural interaction will increase gradually.

"If we organise more lantern festivals and Chinese New Year celebrations, more Kiwis will come and join us and slowly the Kiwis will understand us," he says.

"But one thing they need to know is that the world is like a village. You can't stay by yourself - you need to accept anybody who comes to your doorstep."

(Source NZ Herald, Simon Collins)

03/04/11 - Better border protection for New Zealand

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New Zealand’s border security will be strengthened following the signing of an agreement between New Zealand and Canadian immigration authorities, Immigration Minister Jonathan Coleman announced today.

The agreement is part of a Five Country Conference (FCC) biometric programme involving the immigration agencies of New Zealand, Canada the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom.

Dr Coleman says New Zealand officials will have greater tools to detect identity fraud and process genuine travellers faster by checking fingerprint details, when needed, with their Canadian counterparts. Immigration New Zealand (INZ) signed similar agreements with Australia and the United Kingdom last year.

‘’The ability to check biometric data with international partners will help INZ identify people using false identities,’’ Dr Coleman says.

‘’Organised crime groups and illegal migrants are increasingly using identity and passport fraud to evade detection. The FCC agreement provides greater confidence that non-genuine immigration cases will be refused through the improved detection of fraudulent identity and immigration claims.’’

Fingerprints of asylum claimants and people awaiting deportation who refuse to provide identity information may be checked. Fingerprints of the citizens of FCC countries will not be shared.

‘’This initiative will help Canadian and New Zealand immigration authorities work together to identify immigration fraud and previous deportees who are trying to re-enter our respective countries without permission,” says Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

‘’Canada already has similar initiatives in place with the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States, and we are pleased to expand this partnership to include New Zealand.’’

Dr Coleman confirmed that the protection of personal information is important to all the countries involved and all arrangements conform with the respective Privacy Acts of member countries.

(Source Beehive, Jonathan Coleman)

04/04/11 - Registrations are open for Pacific Quota

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Registration for this year’s Pacific Quota ballot opens today and closes at the end of the month. Between now and then citizens of Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu and Kiribati can submit their registration applications for New Zealand residence under the 2011 Samoa Quota (SQ) and Pacific Access Category (PAC) ballots.

The two schemes allow up to 1100 Samoan citizens, up to 75 citizens of Kiribati, 75 citizens of Tuvalu and 250 citizens of Tonga to be granted residence in New Zealand every year. The principal applicant must have a job offer from a New Zealand employer.

The head of Immigration New Zealand, Nigel Bickle, says the schemes recognise the special relationship between New Zealand and Samoa and the Pacific Access Category countries.

“I would encourage everyone who is eligible to apply and keen to come to New Zealand to do so as soon as possible and ensure they have completed all the required forms and paid the appropriate registration fee,” Mr Bickle says.

“Applicants need to remember to declare all their immediate family members on their registration form to ensure that their forms can be processed.”

Mr Bickle is also reminding previously unsuccessful applicants that they need to register again.

See the Pacific Access Category and Samoan Quota Scheme pages for more information.

(Source Immigration New Zealand)