Why is the party that purports to be kind so unkind to immigrants?:
A change to work rights for partners of migrants is going ahead next month in the face of concerns from immigration experts.
Until now, a partner could get an open work visa - but in the future only partners of green list workers will be able to do that.
Migrant couples will instead have to find accredited employers to sponsor applications for each of them - or have a partner who is able to visit but not work.
Immigration adviser Borey Chum wants the government to rethink the policy, saying it could lead to families choosing other countries to work in.
"I would like to see government doing a U-turn on their decision for some of the partners to get visitor visas instead of work visas. New Zealand is competing internationally for skilled migrants. If you're a family you want the right to work for both of you when you arrive. You're swamped with a lot of bureaucracy coming to New Zealand and to have more bureaucracy involved is not settling at all.
"And again, with another [visa] process means issues of resourcing. So the government are potentially hitting themselves with a stick in terms of being able to process the right for partners to have work visas so that they can work as a family and put food on the table."
Immigration is already overwhelmed by visa applications, this will add to the workload and make the delays in processing worse.
Massey University Professor Paul Spoonley, who is co-chair of the International Metropolis Project looking at migration and integration, said Government immigration policy was focused on individuals, not families. . .
The government kept hundreds of families apart for more than two years because of Covid border closures, now they've taken away partners' rights to work without having to go through the protracted and cumbersome process of getting work visas.
A whole variety of businesses and service providers, including hospitals and rest homes, are desperately short of workers.
Farms are too. Until now farmers who employed immigrants were able to offer work to their partners. They will no longer be able to do so without the would-be workers getting visas which takes time and money.
Not allowing partners of immigrants to get open work visas will deter immigrants and and their partners who could be filling at least some of the many vacancies, from coming to New Zealand and make life harder for those who do come.
This policy is economically damaging and comes with a high social cost for immigrants and would-be employers.
That brings me back to my introductory question - why is the party that purports to be kind so unkind to immigrants?
Could it be that they just don't like them?
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