May 20, 2021
Immigration
Meeting with Erica Stanford
On Saturday 8 May 2021, Dee, Ruth, Robin and Carol attended a meeting at Christchurch Community House where National Party spokeswoman on Immigration, Erica Stanford was speaking. She had flown to Christchurch with Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi and was joined by local MP Dale Stephens.
Erica Stanford spoke on current immigration policy and heard from migrants that voiced their concerns regarding separation from their families due to the closed New Zealand border. She told us that her grandfather emigrated from the Netherlands and she had asked for the role of National spokeswomen on Immigration as she felt able to understand the issues facing migrants.
It was a very moving meeting with some migrants describing how they had not held their young children for over two years. There was real concern that the Government was not recognising the hardship of families of visa holders and were prioritising entertainment (e.g The Wiggles) over families.
Erica outlined the work she had been doing regarding pushing for Nurses’ families to be able to enter and re-join their families. She said that she hoped this would expand to other work visa holders’ families.
Some migrants voiced concern that media was blaming migrants for issues such as housing prices and wanted to see a more positive image of migrants portrayed in media.
The idea that migrants were responsible for the rising house prices was ridiculous because land purchase in New Zealand is strictly governed by the Overseas Investment Act 2005 and to qualify you must be a citizen or New Zealand resident visa holder (or meet the ‘narrow qualifying individuals’ criteria)[1].
There was a lot of concern at the meeting over the new work visa requirements and how the paths to residence were being cut off by the current Government. This was distressing as many migrants had taken Immigration New Zealand statements in good faith and had expected residence applications to be processed in a timely manner. Now there were issues of applicants exceeding the age requirements or older children turning 25 and no longer being eligible to be included in the Residence application as “Dependants”.
There was real anger that INZ was sending mixed messages to migrants – on the one hand advertising for people to come and work in New Zealand as a good place to raise families and on the other refusing a path to residence for all except high income earners ($106,080 per year). It was a real betrayal that a Labour Government initiated a criterion based solely on income rather than the workers who were driving the economy.
Erica Stanford listened to migrants’ concerns and promised to push for family reunification. She also vowed to raise issues regarding visa processing, the time this is taking and the effect this has on applications.
[1] Overseas Investment Act 2005 section 4
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