Jobs group plans to extend mentoring scheme for migrants

A group which has found jobs for migrant permanent residents with the aid of Kiwi mentors plans to extend its scheme to temporary migrants.

The Committee for Auckland has matched 63 permanent unemployed migrants with Kiwi mentors in the past year.

Project manager Sarah Lang said it was important to keep temporary migrant workers in New Zealand as their skills would be needed to help the economy recover from the recession.

"It would be a shame to lose them, because it will be unlikely that they will come back when the recession is over," Ms Lang said.

The group said it was searching for more mentors to help extend its Omega project to temporary migrant workers.

Ms Lang said finding work in New Zealand was more about "who you know" than "what you know".

"Omega helps these migrant workers overcome the catch 22 problem of 'must have Kiwi experience'."

Omega's programme director, Justin Treagus, said: "It's just common sense that in these tough times - we have to make the most of our skilled migrants, and mentoring is an effective way to get them into the workforce."

He said the "special skills and qualifications" of migrants were needed to help Auckland achieve its economic potential.

KPMG research last year found that Auckland went "head to head in competition" with cities such as Toronto, Sydney and London for qualified professional migrants.

Auckland ranked seventh in the world for having the most people born abroad - ahead of Sydney, Melbourne and London - with 39 per cent of it population born overseas.

The Committee for Auckland's report "Growing Auckland, Growing New Zealand" said migrants were more highly qualified than New Zealand-born residents, but internationally qualified people were more likely to be unemployed or underemployed.

"There is a compelling need in a recession, with skill shortages which remain stubborn, to unlock the skills in our economy," the report said.

"The underemployment amongst migrants in Auckland is unknown, but in Canada, if unrecognised qualifications alone were resolved, it would give Canadians an additional $4.1 to $5.9 billion in income annually."

In the 2007-08 period, 38,489 skilled workers were issued with permits to fill jobs that could not be done by New Zealanders.

Michael Fletcher, an independent public policy analyst and economic researcher, wrote in Policy Quarterly that the number of temporary workers in New Zealand had risen from about 30,000 in 2001 to 135,000 last June.

"In principle, many of these workers should return home when their permits expire if an easing labour market means that there are now New Zealanders available to fill the jobs," he wrote.

"In practice, this is likely to depend to a significant extent on whether their employer wants to retain them."

Contact info@omega.org.nz if you would like to become a mentor or are a migrant looking for help.

Current mentors include Auckland City Council chief executive David Rankin, Pan Pacific Travel chief executive Mark Sainsbury, Conference Company chief executive Jan Tonkin and ANZ National Bank regional manager John Wragg.