Boatload of reasons for firm

I THINK it says a lot about the virtues of New Zealand that so many people want to come and live here.

Their desire to put down roots to become a dinkum Kiwi is a fine thing ... a tribute to our land.

Way back in time, when a fledgling United States opened its doors, people of all races were welcomed in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, to help create the new land.

And, to a point, the welcome mat has been put out here through the years.

After the war many displaced peoples from across Europe stepped ashore to start a new life in a bright little backwater deep down in the South Pacific.

There may have been some scratching of heads, and some sideway glances at the strange names and accents, but gradually they morphed into society, brought skills and determination with them, and got on with being a Kiwi.

Generations later they proudly carry their European family names but their accents are as Kiwi as they come.

Immigration and emigration is the way of things in this world.

New Zealand, I believe, has a solid and practical criteria for immigration.

If you have the skills we need, if you have the ability to maintain your family's standard of life, if you have the determination to become part of the great Kiwi societal web, and if you are wanting to come here for all the right reasons ... then there's the mat, come on in.

Some may say it's time to relax what they see as relatively strict immigration rules, given a great swathe of the populace is running off to Australia seeking sunshine and cash, but it looks pretty right to me.

As well as immigration, there is the commitment New Zealand, like many countries engaged with the United nations, has in taking refugees ... assisted immigrants.

That too is fine, given they bring with them a determination to learn about our land, to assimilate into our land, and try to ignore the wretched weather we've been having.

But then there are the queue jumpers.

Australia gets them, and this week news emerged of a group of Chinese "boat people" who declared they would be heading our way for asylum, although they later decided to stay in Darwin.

Such issues are complex, but one issue is not.

It is called going through the right channels ... and I don't mean the channels into the Waitemata Harbour.

No firm policy appears to be in place to take people who turn up crowded in boats.

If people turn up at airports without the correct documentation they are sent back. Simple. But a dozen or more on unscheduled shipping services?

One day it will happen, and our response will set the seal for whatever position we take in the future.

I hope the Government gets its paperwork right on this one, and part of that paperwork should be to ask anyone entering our borders "where's yours?"