Business applauds deeper talent pool from immigration

Highly skilled migrants driving taxis are a thing of the past, writes KEVIN TAYLOR.

Business groups are applauding a plan to let up to 150,000 immigrants into New Zealand over the next three years - and its focus on getting more skilled people.

Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel announced the Government's new immigration programme last month, and changes came into force at the beginning of this month.

The changes not only boost immigration, but rejig the system to let business plug the economy's skill gaps more easily.

And Ms Dalziel says the days of migrant doctors and scientists driving taxis are gone.

The difficulties businesses face in getting skilled labour are reported in Institute of Economic Research quarterly business opinion surveys.

The June quarter showed only a slight drop in the difficulty firms are having finding skilled labour, with a net 42 per cent reporting problems compared with 44 per cent in the March quarter.

The Immigration Service started an "excuse list" a year ago identifying skill shortages in Auckland, Hamilton, Palmerston North, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.

The lists cover many specialised jobs in health, education, manufacturing, trades, services, agriculture and tourism.

It means businesses seeking to employ someone from overseas do not have to prove that a labour market shortage exists in that job, saving employers time and money.

The Government has also set up resettlement pilot schemes around the country to help migrants settle and find work.

Now it is working on a "talent visa" system, also announced last month.

Details are still being decided, and Ms Dalziel expects it to go to the cabinet for approval next month.

The policy is part of a wider review of ways to attract talented people to work and live in New Zealand, and will let employers assure skilled foreigners they can get permanent residency.

Ms Dalziel said the latest changes were the Government's response to calls to attract more skilled and business migrants.

The new immigration programme raises the number of residence approvals from 38,000 to 45,000, with a tolerance of plus or minus 10 per cent. This means approvals could reach nearly 50,000 a year. In the year to June, residency approvals reached 44,598 anyway.

The 10 residence categories were replaced on October 1 by three new approval streams, with the emphasis being on the skilled/business stream.

That stream will cover 60 per cent of all approvals, while family-sponsored approvals will be 32 per cent and international/humanitarian 8 per cent.

The Business Roundtable, Business New Zealand and the Employers and Manufacturers Association (Northern) are positive about the Government's direction.

Business NZ chief executive Simon Carlaw said skill shortages were rife.

"We are talking from very basic jobs all the way to not enough post-doctoral graduates in electrical engineering - and everybody in between."

Shortages were particularly hitting manufacturers, the largest part of the economy. Farmers were screaming out for labour and the dairy and tourism industries were also short.

Mr Carlaw said until now the immigration process had been unable to deliver people with the skills needed in a reasonable time.

"Immigration policy has not married well with the needs of business."

Association chief executive Alasdair Thompson also welcomed the changes, although he was seeking information to compare policies here with other countries.

"We believe it's going to better target the sort of people who can contribute to New Zealand's economic growth - younger, qualified and with good numeracy and literacy skills," he said. "We think the refocusing will deliver that. We need people who can come and add to the country's economic output."

Mr Thompson said New Zealand could handle even more than 50,000 immigrants a year.

"We could raise that by another 15,000 and cope."

Business Roundtable acting chairman Murray Horn also welcomed the Government's direction and the talent visa plan, but said rules were needed if a business was sponsoring a migrant and things went wrong.

Dr Horn said immigration could not be viewed in isolation from other domestic policies, such as tax and employment law.

"The sort of person who is attracted to come to New Zealand will be attracted in part by the domestic policy environment."

But National immigration and population spokeswoman Marie Hasler - who believes the country should aim to increase its population to at least five million - is critical.

"I mean, what's talent? Who is going to decide who is talent? Is it the NZIS? Is there going to be input from business?" she asked.

National launches its immigration policy this year and Ms Hasler is studying ideas to get bosses to employ immigrants for trial periods - but without the hassles of the Employment Relations Act.

She said the act made it harder to dismiss staff.

Ms Dalziel said when she became minister some immigrants in work could not get residency and some with residency could not find a job.

To deal with the last issue the resettlement schemes were launched early this year - including one with the Auckland Chamber of Commerce which established a Government-financed website (www.newkiwis.co.nz) to match employers and migrant skills.

There was also a problem with people coming here to work to meet skill shortages, but no matter how hard they tried they could not meet residency criteria.

"The talent visa will allow you to qualify for residency as long as you have ongoing employment," she said.

At present an employer has to get immigration approval to employ a foreigner with a specific skill, unless that person is on the excuse list.

Under the talent visa, bosses can shoulder-tap those with the skills they want and not only offer them a job but assure them of permanent residency.

The only requirements will be police and health checks.

But the public perception of immigration in the past decade lingers - highly skilled migrants lured here in the 1990s ending up driving taxis.

Ms Dalziel said she was outraged that National took until 1995 to fix the rules creating the problem, but problems lingered for two more years because of the time-lag in applications.