Government: Unemployment doesn't end need for migrants (News Feature)

Wellington - New Zealand still needs skilled immigrants to fill gaps in its workforce despite a rising number of jobless, now at a six-year high as the country's economy weathers a second year in recession. That is the message officials were putting out to counter reports that workers from Britain - traditionally New Zealand's biggest source of migrants - are being sent home as their temporary permits expire and the recession deepens. With the unemployment rate at 5 per cent and still rising, Steve Cantlon, a manager at Immigration New Zealand, a division of the Labour Department, said this week that government policy had always been based on giving New Zealanders the first opportunity to take up work vacancies. 'But New Zealand still needs skilled migrants,' he said, pointing to a list of 87 occupations on the service's 'immediate skills shortage list,' ranging from accountants to dairy herd managers and gas fitters to glaziers. This despite 44 occupations being taken off the list last month as the economy retracted and more New Zealanders were laid off to became available to take up vacancies for other positions. In addition, the service has released a new 'long-term skill shortage list' of 60 occupations from senior engineering and medical positions to air-conditioning, refrigeration and automotive mechanics, boat builders, electricians and fitters and turners. Cantlon said there was particularly strong demand for workers in the Southland and Queenstown Lakes regions at the foot of the South Island, two of the most dramatically scenic and sparsely populated parts of the country. Immigrants with temporary work permits never had any guarantees of permanent residence, he said, and the length of their stays in the country was always subject to jobs being available. Official figures showed that nearly 600,000 immigrants have been given permanent resident status in the past 12 years, just over 106,000 of them from Britain. China was the next biggest source of migrants with more than 82,500, followed by India (60,000), South Africa (48,000) and Fiji (36,100). The government has confirmed its annual target of 45,000 to 50,000 new permanent resident permits for the 12 months starting July 1, up to 29,950 of them for skilled workers or business migrants. Last year, 47,027 permits were granted, the lowest number in a decade and well down on the near 60,000 approved in 2001-02. The total from Britain, which topped 15,000 in each of the two years in the middle of the decade, was down to 8,149 while the number of Chinese given residence was under 7,000, compared with 10,101 in 2002-03. Immigration New Zealand said a recent survey found that 93 per cent of migrants were satisfied or very satisfied with life in their new home and a third had encouraged others to apply for residence. It said a June survey of British migrants living in 12 countries by Britain's NatWest International bank found New Zealand topped the 'quality of life' index. The recession and the focus on immigrant jobs has raised alarm bells in New Zealand's Pacific island community with hundreds reported recently to have been fleeced by a Maori activist who has been charged with taking money from people who have overstayed their visitor permits with a false promise of permanent residence. Immigration New Zealand estimated there are about 16,000 overstayers with the Pacific island states of Samoa (4,082) and Tonga (2,457) the worst offenders. They are followed by China (1,965), Britain (729) and Fiji (713). Officials have assured the island people that they are not about to launch a crackdown as occurred in the mid-1970s when the government terrified the community with a series of dawn raids on homes to round up and deport illegal immigrants.