Questions over immigration policy timing

By DITA DE BONI and NZPA

The Government was warned after this year's election that immigrants with poor English language skills faced an uphill battle settling into New Zealand.

Opposition groups have criticised the timing and content of the Government's announcement that immigrants under the general skills category now have to pass a test showing they have enough English to cope with university study.

Previously, applicants had to show enough skills to handle the equivalent of secondary school education.

In August, the Immigration Service sent briefing papers to the Government after its re-election warning it that even immigrants from English-speaking backgrounds took five to 10 years to achieve employment rates and incomes equivalent to those of comparable New Zealanders.

"For migrants who integrated less readily - typically those with lower education or less skill with English - average convergence times were in the range of 25-40 years," the papers say.

Immigrant numbers were putting pressure on infrastructure and services in some centres. Census data showed that one-third of recent immigrants from North-east Asia could not hold an everyday conversation in English.

Tuesday's immigration change followed a strong campaign by NZ First leader Winston Peters over immigration levels.

But Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel yesterday rejected any link between the change and Mr Peters' campaign.

"This is a pro-settlement move. This is about ensuring the people who come to New Zealand do well once they get here."

But Act leader Richard Prebble called the changes a "panic reaction to Winston Peters' inflammatory remarks" and an "absurd over-reaction".

"To apply a test that 40 per cent of all school graduates would fail is extraordinary ... The prospect of migrants from Britain with needed trade skills being turned down because they don't speak university English - even Mr Peters would think that was absurd. But that's exactly what the Government is doing to migrants from other parts of the world."

Mr Peters himself was unimpressed with the change, saying it would not solve problems that the Government's immigration policies caused.

He said it was disgraceful that the change had been announced when Parliament was sitting under urgency and did not have time to debate the issue.

Former Immigration Minister Tuariki Delamere, now an immigration consultant, said the Government had effectively stopped business immigration from China, turning its back on close to $1 billion a year.

"The Government has blinked, and this policy certainly effectively shut down Winston's rhetoric on immigration."

The secondary teachers' union, the PPTA, also waded into the debate over immigration yesterday, calling for a 5 per cent cap on the number of foreign fee-paying students in secondary schools.

"The dramatic rise in foreign student numbers is exacerbating the staffing problems that already exist, particularly in areas such as Auckland and in the subject areas that are hardest to staff - maths, the sciences and, increasingly, English," union head Jen McCutcheon said.

Education was a social good, not an industry, and the Government's primary obligation was to New Zealand students.

Last year there were 1823 foreign fee-paying students in primary schools, 8732 in secondary schools and 12,649 in state-funded tertiary institutions such as universities and polytechnics.

Herald feature: Immigration