'Unfair' prioritisation leaves anxious migrants facing long delays

Thursday, 17 September 2020

When Imke Herzog​ and Gregor Paetz​ arrived in Golden Bay in 2016, they knew they’d found home.

After six years of travelling, the German couple didn’t even waste a thought on leaving.

They built a life in the small, tight-knit community northwest of Nelson, with its vast coastline and idyllic natural landscape, among a close group of friends, whom they now consider family.

Herzog quickly found work as a senior hairstylist and salon manager in Tākaka, while Paetz secured a job at a local dairy and kiwifruit farm.

Last year, he helped a friend open a small bakery, which supplies organic sourdough goods to the community.

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But the once utopian dream of immigrating to New Zealand has been tainted in recent months for the couple, along with tens of thousands of other migrants, all facing frustrating delays and mounting anxiety.

In May last year, their application for residency under the skilled migrant category was added to a pile of 10,000 others awaiting a decision. They were told it would take about 10 months to process.

By November, that pile of applications had nearly doubled. Sixteen months later, they’re still waiting for an answer.

Immigration New Zealand currently has a backlog of more than 16,000 residence applications in the skilled migrant and work categories. This represents more than 30,000 people and is worth more than $40 million in fees.

A petition with more than 6000 signatures, prompted by the Facebook group Migrants NZ, was presented to Parliament in June, calling on the Government to process the applications.

With the constant threat of Covid-related redundancies, immigration criteria getting stricter and numbers slashed further, would-be migrants fear they may be forced to leave the country.

This is despite meeting all the relevant criteria, investing many years and all their livelihoods and cash into New Zealand, and spending thousands of dollars in application fees.

One woman who contacted Stuff has been waiting for her residency application to be processed since September 2018.

Being left in limbo during uncertain times “weighs heavily”, Paetz says.

“We are working hard for New Zealand, paying our taxes and contributing to a political system that is not representing us or is acting in our interest,” he says.

This “feeling of insecurity undermines everything we do”, impacting their mental and physical health.

“We hunker down, do the best we can and hope it’s going to be enough. But that hope is dwindling fast.”

Today, the couple wait for immigration to finally dust off their file and decide their fate. Until then, they’re not able to settle down, buy a house, or make any long-term plans.

With their work visas set to expire early next year, like thousands of other migrants, they face the prospect of having to apply for work visa extensions due to the delays, through no fault of their own.

This will add up to $2000 on top of the $8000 already spent on application fees, medical checks, and English language tests.

Long wait

The immigration waiting time has been growing continually since mid-2019 – from 201 days in June last year, to 450 days in March, to 600 days in August.

Immigration has blamed its delays on an increased volume of visa applications, and on its offices closing or following strict social distancing requirements due to Covid-19.

But immigration woes were unfolding long before the pandemic struck.

Last year, the department underwent a major restructure, designed to achieve efficiencies, by cutting visa processing offices from 25 sites to 10 globally, and continued its move to shift applications online.

But it received extensive criticism for the move, which it later admitted had not gone smoothly. Migrant numbers spiked while it halved worldwide offices.

It also faced questions earlier this year over its unequal prioritisation of different types of residence applications.

For many years, the allocation of skilled migrant applications was done on a “first in, first served” basis.

But in February 2020, it quietly changed its priority allocation for residence applications, favouring some over others.

Those earning over $51 per hour, or more than $106,000 per year, and applicants with current occupational registration such as teachers, were prioritised.

This came after the New Zealand Residence Programme, which sets a target for the number of residency spots that can be approved, expired at the end of last year.

Immigration lawyer Alistair McClymont​ explains that the normal process is Cabinet meets to agree on a new quota. However, it could not agree.

NZ First and Labour were in negotiations for a decision in December or January over the divisive issue.

Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters had campaigned in 2017 to cut net migration to 10,000, but was unable to get Labour to agree.

National reduced it to approximately 45,000 from 50,000, and Labour cut it even further, to 37,000 – even while the number of people coming here on temporary visas was rising.

This huge imbalance between the number of residency places available and the number of people here on temporary visas directly led to the largest backlog of residency applicants in our recent history.

Come end of June this year, there were 38,787 skilled migrant applications stuck in the residency queue. When Labour took office that was just over 10,000.

To understand the imbalance, there were a potential 125,000 applicants on temporary visas before 2010 when the residency target was 47,000: a ratio of 2.65 to one.

At the end of last year there were 290,000 on temporary visas and the target had been lowered to 37,000: a ratio of 7.84 to one.

‘Natural attrition' of migrants

This left immigration in a tricky spot, with more people legally eligible to become permanent residents than there were places for them.

“So rather than fix the problem, their way of dealing with it was to redesign the way it accepted applications, and [they] started implementing priority and non-priority queues,” McClymont says.

But it’s based on the “incredibly simplistic premise” that someone's value is based on their hourly rate.

“It’s this natural attrition of getting rid of migrants they see as less valuable by essentially doing nothing, but there are all these hidden ways in which they are discouraging people, causing delays.

“The lockdown hasn’t helped, so migrants lose their jobs, lose hope, give up and leave.”

McClymont calls this a “crude, blunt and unrealistic instrument”, especially considering many essential workers during lockdown were migrants.

“Doing menial labour and being paid less than the median wage, care workers run off their feet, or those working supermarkets, food production or [fruit] picking, while many others sat at home watching Netflix.”

Immigration’s “problem” has been solving itself since the pandemic struck, he says. Many migrants in the queue were in affected industries, lost their jobs and now have no right to stay.

Others are praying they won’t be part of another wave of redundancies, and it’s created a situation “ripe” for migrant exploitation. But he warns it’s unfair for migrants to blame immigration case officers.

“This is coming from the top, in Wellington. In my experience, [case officers] are just having to implement the policy and most of them don’t like it. They’ve got incredibly high staff turnover within immigration.”

One Malaysian migrant says she has been waiting 18 months for her application to be processed.

“I’ve missed out on better job opportunities, PhD scholarships, as I’m not a resident, and training at work. Some employers are not too keen to train and invest on non-resident employees.”

If employers make them redundant, they have no choice but to return home.

Concern for migrants’ human rights

The Socialist Equity Group has blamed the Government for jeopardising migrants’ health and basic human rights, and has been campaigning on their behalf.

Its leader, Tom Peters, says the “scandalous prioritisation” also included limiting migrants’ access to superannuation, prioritising partners of residents or citizens, and imposing new class-based parent visa restrictions.

Since February, residents or citizens must earn over $106,000 a year to bring one parent to New Zealand, or $159,000 to bring two parents.

But of real concern is the “horrific situations” thousands of migrants are in.

“It’s happening everywhere in the world, there’re massive redundancies, unemployment is skyrocketing, social services are under pressure and there’s a real social crisis.

“Just like other periods of history, migrants are the scapegoats,” he says.

“These people are very vulnerable, they can’t vote, if they’re made redundant they can’t access benefits, … Others are being separated from their families and children due to border restrictions.”

Immigration announced in early September it had just begun to make steady progress through the non-priority queue, due to the low numbers of priority applications.

It is processing applications received 19 months ago.

To be granted residence in New Zealand is a privilege, “not a right”, says Steve McGill, the acting general manager of visa and border operations.

McGill says if an individual chooses to remain in New Zealand while awaiting the outcome of their application, it is their responsibility to remain lawful.

Demand for residence visas has risen significantly, and immigration is resourced in line with the New Zealand Residence Programme, not with the number of residence applications received, McGill says.

Immigration engages with the applicant if there are concerns with the application, such as job loss, or if the employment doesn’t meet immigration requirements, and provides the applicant an opportunity to comment before a decision on the application is made.

“There are no plans to consider compassionate grounds for individuals who have lost their jobs while waiting for their residence application to be processed,” he says.

However, individuals who do not meet the priority criteria can request urgent allocation of their application, but must provide compelling reasons, such as personal circumstances, humanitarian factors, or matters of national interest.

Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi, who replaced Iain Lees-Galloway, appears to be making attempts to improve the situation for migrants.

In early September, the Government announced visitors and temporary migrants stuck in New Zealand due to Covid-19 would have their visas extended.

Then last week it agreed to pay for repatriation flights for stranded immigrants, and said partners and dependent children of visa holders, who were stranded overseas, would also be able to apply for a new exception.

Last Friday, Faafoi announced it would use its unspent deportations budget to help repatriate foreign nationals who are stuck in New Zealand and facing extreme hardship.

Faafoi did not respond to Stuff’s requests for comment.

‘This is not kind’

Anna, another German migrant, from Christchurch, jointly applied for residency in May 2019 with her partner and son, who was born in New Zealand.

“We’ve been waiting for 16 months just for someone to look at our application, and by then, all the documentation will be outdated, and they will request them all again,” she says.

“It’s as though because I don’t earn over $51 per hour, I’m not as valuable to the country.”

They would like to buy a house, and her partner would like to start his own business, “but we can’t move on with our life”.

Anna’s partner has worked for the same company for six years as a plasterer, but she feels like it doesn’t count for anything.

“I find it very frustrating when you put so much towards this country and its economy and the [Christchurch] rebuild, and you’re just not given anything in return.”

There’s a fear of getting “blacklisted” by immigration staff if they speak out .

“We’re from Germany and Ireland, both First World countries, but some migrants who come from Asia or the Middle East, where they don’t see a future in their home countries, they say they are afraid.”

Anna says she’s struggling to understand how Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern could claim to lead the “kindest and most transparent government”.

“In my view, this is not transparent, this is not kind.”