Migrants living the
smiling, and feel blessed for the opportunities they have been given in this country. AB came over on a rugby visa to play for Southbridge Rugby Football Club in 2009. He has since married locally and started a family, while working his way up to herd manager. Koroi came over on a temporary work visa in February 2016, working as a farm assistant on the same farm. He played for Southbridge until an ACL injury forced him out of the game.
Sevilleno, AB and Koroi are all making lives for themselves in their new home and contributing to the community while working in roles employers are struggling to fill from the New Zealand labour pool.
But incoming changes to New Zealand’s immigration policy will make it more difficult for similar candidates to come and call New Zealand home.
In April, Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse (above) announced proposed changes aiming to manage the quality and number of migrants coming into New Zealand.
Suggested measures would force workers on temporary visas to leave for at least a year after three years here, and introducing an income threshold for those on Essential Skills visas who want to stay longer.
The proposal saw a backlash from local government and the private sector.
The Canterbury Mayors Forum sent a letter to Woodhouse and Prime Minister Bill English expressing concerns about the proposal, and asking for policy with less focus on Auckland issues and more on regional needs.
National has since watered down the proposal, changing some parameters such as reducing the income threshold from the median New Zealand income to 85 per cent of the median – currently $41,538. The new policy takes effect on August 28.
In the year ended June 30, the Government issued 34,521 temporary Essential Skills visas for migrant workers planning to work throughout New Zealand. This is up from 23,950 issued by the same time in 2013.
The number of these visas issued for immigrants wanting to work in Canterbury climbed for four of the last five financial years, peaking at 7602 in the year ending June 30 2016. That has since dropped back to 6004 for 2017.
Projections show Canterbury needs about 106,000 migrants during the next 15 years, or about 6600 people yearly, which is similar to post-quake levels and well above historic levels of 3500 a year.
For Canterbury, key industries that rely on migrant labour in positions considered low skill include farming and aged care.
Canterbury farmers are reliant on migrant workers to keep their farms going, because they cannot find Kiwis for the jobs. There were 3619 Essential Skills visas issued nationally for farm, forestry and garden workers and farmers and farm managers during the year ending June 30 2017.
Almost a third of those visas were for the Canterbury region – 1306 in total.
This is up on the 765 issued for Canterbury in the year end June 30 2013, with numbers increasing gradually over the last five years.
For AB, living and working here is a dream come true.
‘‘What I’ve always wanted, growing up back in Fiji, is to have kids and raise them somewhere they will have access to opportunities.’’
He has got what he always wanted, living with Kiwi wife Kylie and their two young children, with a third on the way.
It was through AB that Koroi ended up in the country.
‘‘I was his best man at his wedding, and he called me into his room and said ‘do you want to work in New Zealand?’ And I couldn’t refuse the offer,’’ said Koroi. ‘‘It’s a dream come true for me.’’ A dairy farmer back in Fiji, Koroi found it challenging to adapt to Kiwi conditions and methods, but he loves working on the farm.
He said he feels like he is part of the local community, and is comfortable in his new home.
But Koroi is worried his visa will not be renewed.
AB was recently involved in trying to find a new worker for the farm. He said it was ‘‘just so hard to find Kiwis’’.
There were lots of migrant workers interested in the role, but the ‘‘stressful’’ and ‘‘tedious’’ visa process was a barrier to hiring them.
He thought the policy changes, especially the three-year limit for some visas, would put a lot of stress on farm owners and might make workers think twice about applying for jobs.
‘‘When you get them through this course, you’ve taught them so much … and at the end of it, you have to send them back home. I just can’t understand that bit.
‘‘To be sent home for a year, or even more, you lose touch, and you lose the trade bit by bit over time.’’
Federated Farmers North Canterbury president Lynda Murchison said that after three years, workers were just getting ‘‘really valuable’’, and forcing them to leave at that point seemed ‘‘really short-sighted’’.
‘‘It seems a bit counterproductive to me, because you can’t just walk into the farm and do the job.’’
She said policy-makers have focused very much on Auckland and have not thought about the ramifications in the regions.
‘‘Trying to do a one-boot-fits-all thing doesn’t work.’’
People needed to realise migrant workers were a necessity for the industry as they could not get enough Kiwis to fill the jobs, Murchison said.
‘‘A long-term issue we need to look at is why our young people don’t want to work in an industry in which we are the best in the world.’’
Like farming, the aged-care industry needs migrant labour to fill jobs Kiwis do not seem to want. Of the 22,000 aged-care workers in New Zealand, an estimated 6000 are working on a visa.
In Canterbury, there are roughly 3600 caregivers. As of May, there were 530 ‘‘aged or disabled carers’’ working in Canterbury on Essential Skills visas – about 15 per cent.
This does not include those working in the industry under a Temporary Partnership visa, for which occupation is not recorded, or those who came into the country on a temporary visa before moving on to residency or citizenship.
More than half the workers on the dementia unit Sevilleno manages are migrants.
Sevilleno has become attached to his residents, who thrive on consistency and deteriorate if their carers change regularly.
‘‘You can’t have another person looking after your mum every year.’’
He said anyone could do the tasks required to be a caregiver, but ‘‘not everybody has the heart to care’’.
‘‘Being a caregiver, experience-wise, we have to upskill ourselves, and after three years we’re probably going to be becoming a senior caregiver – we’ve done all the training.
‘‘What will be our incentive, if we’re going to be sent home for a year? I would go back to Canada, to be honest.’’
Currently, two regular staff on the ward are unable to work while their visas are processed. One has been waiting seven weeks, with no income through that time.
The Diana Isaac retirement village is owned by Ryman Healthcare, which operates 31 villages employing 4000 people nationally. About a third of its employees are migrants.
Chief executive Gordon MacLeod said they were concerned about the immigration policy because it took time to train staff in their organisation, and worried migrants would not go for the jobs if they knew they would be sent home later.
‘‘When you get them through this course, you’ve taught them so much . . . and at the end of it, you have to send them back home. I just can’t understand that bit. To be sent home for a year, or even more, you lose touch, and you lose the trade bit by bit over time.’’ Abaramo Mono Borisi