Roshni Sami -Internet Mana candidate

The 2013 Census revealed a New Zealand of increasing ethnic diversity – 213 ethnic groups to be exact.  New Zealand, and Auckland in particular, can now be classified as “super diverse”, according to Massey University humanities and social sciences research director Professor Paul Spoonley.  We now have over one million people living in New Zealand who were not born here, up nearly 6% since 2001, to one in four.  Twenty-three per cent of Auckland is Asian, now a very significant non-majority population.  After New Zealand European and Maori, the largest ethnic groups in New Zealand are Chinese, Samoan, and Indian.  Ethnic diversity has been increasing.  We also have a sizeable population of around 145,000 people on work visas, a further 73,500 on student visas and eligible to work up to 20 hours per week, and up to 8,000 Regional Season Employer Scheme workers from the Pacific.

Migrants moving to any country make big sacrifices in the hope of the bigger goal to live a better life in a better country.  In NZ our economy also needs migration to succeed.  Beyond this utilitarian analysis, we should also think about what people actually have to go through, in their quest for residency.  Which is really a desire to participate on more fair terms in the job market.  Is it ok to have a group of people living as second class citizens in NZ simply because they are on work visas?

Exploitation of new migrants happens primarily because they are caught in a catch-22 with their employer due to visa regulations and cannot speak out.  Anyone on a work visa is heavily reliant on their employer – either to renew their work visa so they can stay for another year; or, in the case of a one year working holiday visa, because the visa holder both hopes their employer will support a proper work visa application at the end of the one year visa, and because changing jobs is risky, as it less and less appealing for prospective employers the fewer months you have left on your visa (Chinese and Filipino working holiday visa holders are prevented from working for more than three months with any one employer, making their time in NZ particularly precarious).  When you compound this with racial prejudice in the job market, as well as the willingness of migrants to endure more hardship (because they have more to lose), the system filters most migrants down into casual, low paid, low skill, sometimes unpleasant jobs in the service sector like door-to-door and parts of retail sales, call centre work, customer service centre work, cleaning, caregiving and hospitality work; and also in the farming sector.  Many are not unionized.  Shame of failing and having to return home, as well as having family reliant on sending money home can also serve to trap work-visa holders in bad work conditions; furthermore it is risky for these precarious workers to move between jobs as most are living week to week on low wages.  This structuralised desperation can also serve to drive wages down, especially without collective bargaining, as Helen Kelly, President of the Council of Trade Unions, pointed out last week:

Contracts and payments are not monitored or checked, but rely on employees to come forward and make complaints; sometimes the incidence of migrants being paid less than minimum wage, having pay withheld can go on for years.  These could be contributing factors to 20% of Asian households being overcrowded, and the rise in poverty related illness in Asian children.  Migrants also face issues such as family separation, long drawn out visa processes.  International students are particularly at risk, young and isolated from family, with inadequate support.  Even when migrants achieve residency, they then face racism in the job market and work place with no means of protection or recourse except the Human Rights Commission.  Racism accounts for 55% of surveyed incidences of discrimination (2008&2010 NZGSS) most of which was experienced while working or when applying for/keeping a job.

Globalisation has led to almost all ingredients of the market: goods, services, finance, laws, information, corporations to be globalized to various degrees, but what lags far behind is the globalization of labour.  Free and unfettered access by all workers to all job markets.  Aside from barriers like cost and various forms of prejudice, migration remains a highly political issue and leaves citizens of some countries with more freedom and opportunity than others.  Anyone on a New Zealand passport is privilege to visa waiver in a privileged club of countries; and even the right of access to work in Australia and the UK.  New Zealand and Australia are ranked 5^th and 7^th (respectively) on the visa restrictions index where 1 has the least restrictions.  Compared with Samoa 48^th, Tonga 49^th, Fiji 51^st, Papua New Guinea 53^rd as some of our closest neighbours; and India 74^th, China 82^nd, and the Phillipines 69^th, as our top three migrant populations.  Some citizens of the world have more freedom of movement than others.

A critical question to ask is how has the government (local and national) responded to the increase in the number of new migrants in NZ, particularly in Auckland.  Aside from the power dynamics in the work force due to visa regulations; those on a work visa are also not able to access a variety of social services, ironically including migrant settlement services.

The Migrant Employment Assistance Fund managed by WINZ restricts third party service providers with severe eligibility criteria: to assist only those who have been residents for less than two years, or those who are on a open work visa (this would include the Silver Fern visa, graduate job search visa, work visa via partnership).  It clearly excludes those workers on a student visa eligible to work up to 20 hours, as well as anyone on a working holiday visa or part of the NZ-Pacific Recognized Seasonal Employer Scheme for horticulture and viticulture industries.  However it is the latter, who are on the more restrictive visas, that are more likely to need help.  For example Chinese and Filipinos on working holiday scheme are restricted to work for one employer for a maximum of 3 months making their time in NZ particularly difficult, as mentioned earlier.

The services available to migrants include those provided by Auckland Regional Migrant Services, Migrant Action Trust, Auckland Chamber of Commerce “New Kiwi Career Success Programme”, Chinese New Settlers Trust, and information services from 18 Citizen Advice Bureaus.  The key factor missing in settlement support is the one-on-one, face-to-face advice, to help people solve life problems in a totally unfamiliar context where there are significant power imbalances.  This is resource intensive and currently most services offered are only informational (leaflets or websites) or referrals to Migrant Action Trust which delivers workshops to inform and engage migrants as well as the more resource intensive one-on-one assistance.  At initial stages migrants need more hands on help, but the government prefers to fund informational services leaving migrants stranded until they get on their feet the hard way.

While Auckland Council prides itself on supposed multiculturalism, spectactularly displayed through the public festivals like Chinese New Year and Diwali there are actually no programmes from the council to help new migrants settle successfully or less painfully, despite the fact that Auckland is the largest recipient of new migrant settlers.  Multiculturalism is a flagship enterprise for Auckland Council, which capitalises on cultures that it does not directly support.  Fundamentally neither Auckland Council nor the government are really addressing the true social and economic issues that come with diversity and settlement of new migrants.  New Zealand continues to attract skilled migrants who often feel misled once the realities of the NZ job market become apparent.

During 2014 Migrant Action Trust worked with their 20 affiliate community groups along with a number of supporting community organizations and unions including SCT, Auckland Refugee Community Coalition, Migrante, and the Living Wage Movement to create the document “Making Multiculturalism Work”.  They used this to lobby local and national government candidates for commitments on the ten key areas of concern that have been raised time and again and called on the government and candidates standing for parliament to address the concerns of those communities. Currently it falls upon under-resourced community organizations to take up the role of central government in settling new migrants.  The commitments made by each party were as follows:

It seems the migrant community (including former refugees and new Pacific migrants) have little to hope for from this National government.  In the previous term the government also refused to assist with issues that Migrant Action Trust has found to be of main concern to migrants and former refuges. These included having a well-resourced non-government community-led hub to deliver appropriate settlement services for migrant and refugee groups, a living wage, effective family reunification policies, culturally appropriate housing for the elderly, transition programmes for international students to assist with employment upon graduation, programmes to legalise undocumented migrants, the granting of citizenship to those children born to undocumented migrants, and effective protection and the opportunity to look for new employment to migrant victims of labour exploitation.

So next time your dinner is interrupted by a telemarketer or door-knocker, highly likely to be a migrant worker, take the time to muster some kindness and respect.  This part of our community is on the margins and their suffering and challenges are largely invisible.  Kiwis enjoy the diversity of cultures that makes life and food in their cities more interesting, however the low status and precarious position of these people, that are really striving hard, is not adequately acknowledged or responded to by public institutions.  Most new migrants are caught off guard by the realities of living in NZ, but take whatever means necessary to stay here including demeaning, unpleasant work and living conditions; and being separated from loved ones.  It’s a silent struggle that noone wants to know about.  Politics is on the side of voting residents.  Various forms of xenophobia shape the election topics headlines whether it is about migrants driving up the property prices or taking jobs; however what goes unsaid is the convenience for New Zealand residents to have willing workers for some of the worst jobs in our society.  Perhaps it’s not the migrants that should be grateful to be in NZ, but Kiwis that should be grateful for our migrant communities.