Immigration numbers could drop without too much heavy lifting from Labour

Tuesday, 9 April 2019

Held To Account: Halfway through the Labour-led Government's term, Stuff examines some of the biggest promises to see if they've been delivered.

ANALYSIS: The question of immigration has always been a difficult balancing act for New Zealand's political parties.

On one hand, businesses need workers and with a relatively low unemployment rate of 4.3 per cent, there are not enough workers to satisfy the demand.

On the other hand, there has been an ongoing debate over how many new migrants is too many for the country's infrastructure, with new arrivals putting pressure on existing housing stocks, health resources and schools.

In the lead up to the 2017 general election, almost all of the major parties agreed there was the need to tighten rules around immigration, however, the full extent of proposed changes varied by shades across the political spectrum.

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Labour promised to take a 'breather on immigration' by making sure that work visas were not being abused to fill low-skill, low-pay positions, while at the same time ensuring businesses could get the skilled workers they need.

Coalition partner NZ First's election policy focused on a massive tightening of residency rules while the Greens called for a more compassionate approach to assist immigrants into work.

Since gaining power, Labour's policy-makers have been mostly tinkering around the edges, including the introduction of the construction and infrastructure skill shortage list and an increase in the annual refugee quota.

The most notable effort last year were changes to the post-study work rights for international students.

Foreign students lost work rights, particularly for lower level courses.

It's now halfway through the Government's first term and the country is still waiting on any further significant reforms, particularly on work visas.

Over the course of the last 10 years the number of work visas issued has increased, from 175,714 approved applications in the year to June 2009 to 230,258 in the June 2018 year.

The present state of New Zealand's immigration policy benefited from a last-ditch pre-election policy burst from National, particularly around the tightening of skilled migrant visa requirements.

CHANGING GOAL POSTS

Chris Christian is a proud New Zealand citizen. He has worked hard to fit in here.

But he is not sure how long he will be able to stay after the previous government suspended the parent visa category in 2016.

'I came here on a student visa in 2010 but before I could finish my study, I was offered a job based on the qualification I got back in India, a diploma in electrical engineering. Based on that job, I got residency,' Christian said.

With two older parents at home in Gujarat and a sister who worked in a different part of India, Christian didn't initially plan to stay in New Zealand.

'Somebody needs to be with my parents. I was thinking that I would work here for a few years and then when they need help, I would go back. But my sister decided to come over here and now she is a resident and married to a Kiwi guy.'

Chris Christian became a New Zealand citizen in 2017 but immigration law changes have made it increasingly difficult for him to bring his parents for visits. He is not sure he would have come to New Zealand if he had known it would mean the long term separation from his parents.

To meet the requirements of the parent visa category, Christian needed to be earning at least $65,000 either on his own or with a partner.

His salary at the time didn't meet that threshold and he wasn't allowed to combine his income with his sister to make it over the line.

After discussions with his employer, Christian was given a raise, ticking all the boxes for his application which he filed in May 2016.

But before the application could be processed, National's immigration minister Michael Woodhouse announced a blanket suspension of the category, leaving 6000 applications in limbo.

Christian became despondent with the changing situation and decided to quit his job to go back to India to be with his family.

On his parents' insistence, Christian eventually returned to his former position in New Zealand, became a citizen and brought his parents in on visitor visas.

However, the visitor visa process is becoming increasingly difficult as his parents, who are in their early 60s, have to jump medical hoops each time they apply.

The minor health issues they have are not unusual for people in their age group, said Christian.

'If something comes up in their medical tests, they won't be able to come again. I am not sure what I will do then.'

Christian would like the visitor visa requirements to be relaxed so that elderly parents are able to visit without extensive medical tests or the parent visa application process to be reopened for those that applied before the category was suspended.

'New Zealand didn't spend a cent on my education, my parents did. They invested in me, which means they invested in New Zealand and now New Zealand says they can't come here,' Christian said.

He believed immigrants were often treated as outsiders in New Zealanders without acknowledging just how much they do for the country.

'My job is designing emergency communications systems for the fire service and coast guards. I am helping to save lives of the people of New Zealand but I feel like my family is treated like intruders.'

A review of the parent category was expected to be completed by June 2018, however a decision on the future of this type of category has yet to be made.

In the new residency policy objectives advisory listed the reunification of families of New Zealand residents as one of the priorities for the Government.

Lane Neave Immigration partner, Mark Williams, said the government had largely benefited by rules pushed through at the last minute by the last government.

NEW RULES ON THE HORIZON

Lane Neave Immigration partner, Mark Williams said the current government took a while to warm up but some of the changes proposed for later this year could be quite drastic.

'What happened is in August 2017, in the lead up to the election, National did a whole lot of changes around the skilled migrant category and made it much tougher to qualify for residency,' Williams said.

'As a consequence of that, this current government has only tweaked the policy around residency. National had already reduced the skilled migrants dramatically and done Labour and NZ First's job for them.'

Where there have been changes was around student visas and post study work rights, he said.

But big changes were coming, Williams warned.

In December 2018, the government announced consultation over employer assisted work visas.

The goal of the policy proposal was to ensure that visas were granted for roles where there were genuine skills shortages.

The viticulture and horticulture have been told to make the industry more attractive to New Zealanders.

'My view is we seem to have a set of regulations right now that seem to be very well balanced. But what is concerning us is the proposed changed to the employer assisted work visas because that could potentially go too far,' he said.

The feedback he was getting from employers was that they would prefer to hire New Zealand citizens over and above migrants if they could, Williams said.

'But from the Government point of view, these businesses are opting to hire migrants over citizens and that's not the case,' he said.

Williams said the broad brush assumption that the 90,000 young people who were currently unemployed would suddenly find work if the number of migrants was reduced was misguided.

Around 85 per cent of the businesses he worked with would struggle to fill positions, Williams said.

'Basically the Government is turning of the labour tap and saying, if you have a labour problem then you spend your own money to train workers, we're not going to supply or allow you to supply, migrant labour at the expense of New Zealanders,' he said.

Williams believed the one size fits all approach would hurt as well as help.

If the proposed changes are implemented by the Government, there wouldn't be much else for them to do on the topic of immigration, Williams said.

PROGRESS MADE, OPPORTUNITIES AHEAD

Immigration minister Iain Lees-Galloway said he believed the Government had made good progress on immigration but there were still opportunities to make changes.

Lees-Galloway said his ongoing priorities were maintaining investment levels and immigration settings that responded to regional differences as well as the implementation of rules that would protect migrant workers from exploitation.

Despite promises to reduce immigration, the cap for the seasonal workers was increased by 1,750 to 12,850 to alleviate labour shortages in the country.

But the horticulture industry has been put on notice, Lees-Galloway said.

The minister said the horticulture and viticulture companies needed to make the industry more attractive to New Zealand workers, to build more accommodation to relive local housing pressures, to take greater responsibility for supply chains and labour contractors to stamp out exploitation and move the industries into quality productivity and high value products.

PROMISES ACHIEVED WITHOUT HEAVY LIFTING

National's last ditch effort to mute long-running criticisms over immigration in August 2017 has had a flow on effect for the Labour-led coalition.

Where New Zealanders will see the full articulation of Labour's 'breather on immigration' will be in the final construction of it's employer assisted work visa programme, expected to be announced in the middle of this year.

It will be a difficult balancing act for the party to ensure it stays true to its promise to reduce immigration while also not upsetting business interests.

Immigrant families are also waiting to hear what will happen with the parent visa category, though it is not clear where the Government will finally land on this issue.

The one substantial change made in 2018 was on post-study work rights.

But the real impact of these changes will only really be felt once the current batch of international students graduate and attempt to prolong their stay in New Zealand through work.

Correction: An earlier version of this story stated the number of work visas issued had decreased in the 2019 financial year. The financial year for Immigration New Zealand ends on June 30. The number was therefor incomplete.