"Migrants Treated Like Waste Products"

By Rebecca Todd – The Press

“New Zealand is treating migrants like waste products using them and then throwing them away, says Wigram MP Jim Anderton.

“They come under policies that allow and encourage them to come, and then when things turn bad we kind of dispose of them like a waste product,” he said yesterday. “It’s inhumane.”

Anderton will attend a meeting today at Christchurch’s Skilled Migrant Information and Resource Centre on fair treatment for migrants who are being forced out of New Zealand if they lose their jobs.

He said skilled migrants should be given time and help in finding another job if made redundant and should qualify for government assistance while unemployed.

Migrants in his electorate had been caught out by the change in economic conditions and were being told to head home.

“People come here in good faith with good skills to offer,” Anderton said.

“It shouldn’t be that long before things pick up again and we’ll be after the same skills, but people burnt by this won’t be enthusiastic about recommending New Zealand…..” more here

Mr Anderton is a master of the understatement and news is already spreading fast with rumours that British newspaper “The Sun” is to investigate the affair.

Is the door closing on Skilled migration in New Zealand?

What isn’t really coming out in some of the press reports is that some applications/renewals for visas are being made by migrants with job offers but they’re turned down – despite them meeting all the necessary pre–requisites and having jobs that are either on the Long Term Skill Shortage List or the Immediate Skill Shortage List.

Filipino migrants threaten to become overstayers

Last month the plight of thousands of Filipino migrants threatened with expulsion from New Zealand was raised by the Philippine consul-general Emilie Shi.

She called on the NZ government to “have some compassion and human consideration” when workers were refused visa extensions. According to the Department of Labour there were New Zealanders available to do their work. But if New Zealanders are available for work why aren’t they given the jobs – why were they offered to migrants? Could it be that there is still a skills shortage in New Zealand!

Some of the migrants threatened to remain in the country and work illegally, rather than be forced to return home and lose everything they owned. This led to calls from INZ for migrant support groups to “dob-in” (report) overstayers. Since then the problem has grown worse and migrants from other countries have become caught up in what many are starting to call NZ’s new ‘anti-immigration’ policy.