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.
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