Four Migrant stories in the paper today.
Hmmm – could this be a sign of things to come? To be honest – it’s not that often that you read stories about migrants in the papers here, at least that I’ve noticed. But today, the Dom Post had four.
Three of the stories were about Immigration decisions made by either NZIS, or the deportation review board. But one of them was about a factory which has laid off Kiwi Workers while keeping Temporary Migrant workers on. I have a feeling there may be a few of these stories over the coming months as Kiwis are laid off work and get miffed that Migrants are still coming in.
So – what were the stories?
Well, first off, in a fit of common sense, the Deportation Review Board this week upheld a decision to deport a man who raped a 13 year old girl. The man claimed that should his actions become known in his home village, he would be ostracised. No shit Sherlock – and the problem with this is???? It’s just a pity that last week the same review board felt a man who raped a boy should be allowed to stay.
Then, there’s the news that a pregnant woman, who gave birth on the plane into New Zealand and dumped the baby in a bin on arrival is likely to be charged. Now – this is all a bit unclear as to what happened – lots of “sources claimed” type stuff. But what does seem to be the case is that the woman had applied for a seasonal workers visa, and lied on her application form saying that she was not pregnant. Hmmm – lying on your visa application – not a good idea! Throwing your baby in a bin – I just don’t have words for that I’m afraid.
To top this off, the immigration minister wants to know how a man who was convicted and jailed for killing one of his daughters and injuring the other by driving them off Mt Wellington, got a work permit instead of being deported. His wife pleaded that he be allowed to stay in New Zealand. I think a lot of us would dearly like our families to be allowed to stay in New Zealand, and many of us get told to sod off!
Now, most worrying in terms of what could be seen as the start of a backlash about migration is the story that a Taranaki factory has laid off Kiwi workers, but kept on migrant workers who were brought in on temporary work permits to do skilled jobs. The union is involved, but the reporting doesn’t really explain that clearly that these migrants are doing work that the Kiwi Workers cannot do. They would have to re-train to be able to do that.
I’m not sure if we will see more of these stories – maybe they were always there but I’ve just not noticed them. It feels as though I’m seeing a lot more in the paper recently. It is starting to sound like it might be harder for people to migrate here in search of jobs. Certainly in some skill areas there’s still no shortage of jobs that don’t have people to fill them, but just last week a Family had to leave New Zealand because their Work Visa wasn’t renewed (on the basis that it was not for a skilled job and therefore a Kiwi should be doing it).
What this means for people wanting to move to New Zealand I’ve no idea. But I think it’s well worth keeping an eye on the news over the next few months to get an idea of what is going on.
Related posts:
- Silver Fern Visa – don’t hold your breath.
- One Report about NZIS is out – one still to come.
- Do you really need an Immigration advisor anyway?
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