Cafe owners want residency path for staff, but experts say it's complicated

Tuesday, 23 September 2025

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A Wellington cafe's plea to put hospitality into the visa category that would give its migrant workers a pathway to residency has received a lukewarm response from the tourism and hospitality minister.

Chocolate Fish Cafe owners John and Penny Pennington have shared a letter they sent to Tourism and Hospitality Minister Louise Upston, asking for residency to be given to their migrant staff.

The pair said they were losing valued staff to other professions, which could offer workers residency after two years. They wanted a regulated pathway to residency to exist for migrant hospitality workers.

But Upston, who is also the minister for social development, suggested that the couple needed to consider tapping into the jobseeker pool.

“I encourage cafes across Wellington, and New Zealand, to hire those currently looking for work,” she said.

In Wellington, there were 19,000 people on Jobseeker support, including 6000 aged between 18-24, who were looking for work, she said.

The Ministry of Social Development was actively trying to match jobseekers with jobs, she said, and there were many workers across New Zealand who could move into tourism and hospitality careers.

The Penningtons’ letter has been widely circulated through the media, with John telling The Post he had been shocked by the widespread interest.

All he wanted was a discussion on how he can keep his skilled staff from being drawn to other industries, he said.

Many Kiwis didn’t see hospitality as a viable career path and often only did it as a way to earn additional income while studying, John said.

This meant it was hard to fill leadership roles such as front-of-house managers and barista managers, he said.

“We have a couple of experienced staff that have been with us for a while, and when their work visa runs out… they have no pathway. They basically have to leave the country.”

Under the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO), the majority of hospitality jobs are graded either a four or a five, and judged as needing only a high school education.

This means hospitality migrant employees need to be highly qualified, or to make over $120,000 a year to be eligible for residency, John said.

The business was an accredited employer, and was currently sponsoring two employees, he said.

“I guess from one point I'm saying, at least try and have a pathway for immigrants.

“Or, at least try and make hospitality a career path for Kiwis, because otherwise, there won't be too many of us left in the industry.”

The Post spoke to an employee of John’s who was leaving her role to work at Corrections. She asked to remain unnamed due to fear of affecting her future employment status.

The employee said she was sad to leave theteam at the cafe, adding it was disappointing NZ’s immigration system didn’t have many opportunities for hospo workers to obtain residency.

“It's sad, you know.”

Could a pathway to residency via hospitality be a thing in the future?

Immigration adviser Iain MacLeod said the issue was complex.

The hospitality industry had various different level of skills so while a dishwasher did not have a pathway to residency, the highest skilled hospo roles did, he said.

He said with 50,000 thousand New Zealanders on the employment benefit, some would be wanting to work as a barista.

“I think as employers, we have some responsibility to look a bit harder and work a bit harder to get younger people who are prepared to come and who want to come and do this sort of work.

“Until the New Zealand government gets serious about forcing people off the unemployment benefit and into jobs like training up to be baristas, I'm not sure that the answer is just opening the doors to more baristas.”

Unite union Otago/Southland organiser Simon Edmunds said he thought the idea of having a route to residency sounded extremely welcome.

As someone who was working with the migrant workers in Queenstown, he said he was impressed an employer was speaking up about the importance of a pathway to residency for hospo workers.

It was important migrants saw a pathway to a long-term future in the country where they were respected, he said.

“We kind of treat them like they're disposable batteries that can be chucked out after a couple of years.

If people were good enough to come to NZ and fill skill shortages, they were good enough to earn a pathway to residency, he said.

“These people are paying taxes, are doing really often quite hard jobs or unpleasant jobs that might be less attractive to some other locals.

“They should have some reward at the end of that.”