KEY POINTS:
Just before Christmas, an immigrant from South Africa came to see me. She wanted me to do a story to highlight her plight.
Rita, a graphic designer, came to New Zealand early last year on the new Work-to-Residence visa, a scheme introduced by New Zealand Immigration in December
2005.
She recalled how she felt like she had won the lottery on the day she received news that her application had been approved and how her first trip to Auckland was a continuation of that fairy tale.
Rita had been given six months to find a job which matched her skill, and she managed to find one on the week she arrived.
She quit her job in South Africa, sold everything, and used her life savings to pay for the move to New Zealand, including buying tickets for her husband and daughter.
Confident this country was now home, she signed a 12-month lease on a rental property and bought a car and home furnishings on hire purchase - easy to get since she had a job and regular income.
Two months later, her New Zealand fairy tale became a nightmare when she was made redundant. She had not been employed long enough to apply for permanent residence.
The Work-to-Residence scheme states applicants may be approved for residence under the skilled migrant category when established in ongoing skilled employment for a period of at least three months, during the six-month deferral period.
Rita had found it near impossible to find another employer to take her on. She discovered although she had been lucky the first time around, many potential employers were not even aware of the Work-to-Residence visa, let alone how it works.
Her husband too had been unemployed since moving here, and with no income and being non-residents, they had no money and nowhere to turn to for help.
When Rita came to see me, she claimed her car had been repossessed and home telephone line cut. Her only contact left with the outside world was her pre-paid cellphone.
In between sobs, Rita said she was disappointed there were no government support agencies to help people like her, and she was angry at how immigrants were often left on their own.
New Zealand is seeing an increase in immigrants. According to the annual Migration Trends report from the Department of Labour, almost 100,000 people were issued work permits in 2005/06 - an increase of 21 per cent from the previous year.
Permanent New Zealand resident numbers are also up, and Minister of Immigration David Cunliffe said new figures show the Government is responding well [to New Zealand's immigration needs] with effective immigration measures.
But is it? Surely it takes more than just being liberal in work permit and residency approval for the Government to say it has effective immigration policies.
A good policy must be one that ensures that even after successfully attracting skilled people here, it is able to help these immigrants find the jobs to plug the worker shortage we're supposed to be facing.
And in the process make a good living, so that they can pay the taxes needed to help keep New Zealand afloat.
In October, I met another immigrant who was in a similar situation to Rita. The only difference was she lost her job after getting her residency approved, but had struggled to find another employer who would take her on with her limited Kiwi experience.
Overnight, this skilled immigrant, brought in to help plug a worker shortage, was turned from being a help into a liability.
Last week, I was introduced to two new immigrants from the Philippines.
Ran and Caesar arrived on New Year's Eve and were full of hope and dreams of their future in New Zealand. It was interesting to hear how they saw the country, the policies, the people and why they decided to move to New Zealand. Inevitably, they compared it with the Philippines.
Kiwis were well paid. Earning even the minimum wage in New Zealand would be enough for a person to live like a king in the Philippines, Caesar, a banker, said.
Little did he know that New Zealanders are among the most lowly paid people in the developed world.
The houses here were so beautiful, and everyone here seemed to own a beautiful home, Ran said.
With Auckland house prices averaging more than $520,000 and rising $540 a day, I did not want to break his illusion by telling him that at today's prices, the only houses most of us Aucklanders can afford are castles in the air.
I also did not have the heart to tell them that it took me years, working in different jobs including running a cafe, property subdivision, managing a hotel, setting up a food court and even starting my own newspaper before I could even get close to working on the fringes of mainstream journalism.
Setting a six-month deadline would have been mission impossible for me.
But like others on the Work-to-Residence visa, the six-month countdown is on for Ran and Caesar to find the elusive jobs that match their skills, and for employers who are open-minded enough to take them on.
When we parted, I wished them the best of luck. I know they are going to need plenty of it.
