National-led Government rejects call to change 'ableist' immigration policy

Wednesday, 29 November 2023

A Chilean family who have called New Zealand home for seven years are in limbo after visa troubles over their daughter's disability. (Video first published February 25, 2022.)

New Immigration Minister Erica Stanford has turned down a call to change a policy an advocacy group says discriminates against migrants with disabilities.

The acceptable standard of health criteria means a person can be declined a temporary visa or residency if they are going to add significant costs to New Zealand’s health system.

Migrants Against the Acceptable Standard of Health Aotearoa (MAASHA) spokeswoman Áine Kelly-Costello said the policy treats people with disabilities as cost burdens and is ableist.

'This new government has committed to migration measures the new PM has called 'humane’, but there's nothing humane about a migration system that continues to discriminate against migrants and families based on disability or health conditions,' she said.

Kelly-Costello said removing the requirement would reduce bureaucracy, which is a goal the new National-led Government campaigned on.

'However, this must be done in conjunction with removing the human rights exemption from the Immigration Act 2009 and upholding UN recommendations to go through migration policy with disabled people's close involvement to remove discrimination,” she said.

The new government needs to make changes to an immigration system that continues to discriminate against disabled people, advocate Áine Kelly-Costello says.

In August 2023, 22 New Zealand organisations signed an open letter calling on political parties to abolish the acceptable standard of health requirements.

The previous Labour Government increased the significant-cost health threshold from $41,000 to $81,000 over five years in August 2022.

Then-immigration minister Andrew Little said the policy helped to manage the effect of immigration on the capacity of the health system, and did not support removing it.

Carolina Vasquez’s daughter, Ignacia, has a learning disability which has jeopardised the entire family’s residency visa application as Ignacia may not meet the acceptable standard of health criteria.

A UN committee raised concerns about the policy while assessing Aotearoa’s progress at a Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) in September 2022.

Ignacia Vasquez has a learning disability which is affecting her entire family’s residency visa application. The family is originally from Chile but has been stuck in limbo in Christchurch for eight years.

Ignacia has been denied a student visa in the past due to not meeting the acceptable standard of health criteria. It was assessed she would impose significant costs or demands on New Zealand special education services.

The family is awaiting the outcome of her latest application, but have been advised her disability may affect the outcome.

Immigration Minister Erica Stanford said the acceptable standard of health requirement helps manage costs and demands on health and special education services.

'We've built our lives here in Christchurch and this is taking a huge toll on our mental health,' Ignacia's mother, Carolina Vasquez, said.

'We just want to be able to stay with certainty, and we want this for all other families and migrants.'

Kelly-Costello said she is concerned the new Government may take a purely economic focus to migration.

“As migrants with disabilities and health conditions and their family members, we know that treating migrants as units to be measured in their economic productivity is a recipe for exploitative and dehumanising work conditions,” she said.

'We are all human beings with inherent value, and we call on this Government to treat all migrants as such.'

Immigration Minister Stanford said the Government does not have plans to consider removing the acceptable standard of health requirement.

She called the policy a standard process to manage costs and demands on New Zealand’s taxpayer-funded health and special education services.

“Waivers of the requirement to be of an acceptable standard of health can be made in some cases,” Stanford said.

'These decisions are made by immigration officers who are tasked with balancing a range of factors.'