After a year of sweeping immigration announcements, internal policies being defined and defied, and stories of migrants in strife, 2022 is expected to be even busier.
The big announcement in the new year will be the immigration reset.
Expected in April, the reset announcement will outline the government’s plans to attract highly skilled migrants.
But the government will review recommendations from the Productivity Commission’s final report on rebalancing immigration settings ahead of the announcement.
In its preliminary report, the Productivity Commission found pre-Covid immigration had reached unsustainable levels.
The report also reiterates findings from a previous inquiry into immigration settings by think tank New Zealand Institute of Economic Research for the Productivity Commission, which highlighted the country relied too heavily on temporary migrants for lower-skilled jobs.
Immigration advisor Katy Armstrong believes the reset has already happened.
“The biggest thing I expect for 2022 is a noose around immigration.
“Immigration has been reset in front of our eyes. The Government waited to see which industries squeal.”
Armstrong says she agrees with the Productivity Commission’s report that infrastructure investment has not kept up with immigration but believes it will be hard for the businesses to operate without migrants after being so reliant on them for so long.
Since announcing plans to reset immigration in May 2021 and attract high skilled workers instead of low skilled workers, the government extended 10,000 temporary working holiday and supplementary seasonal visas.
Not on the agenda
During the 2020 election Labour campaigned on reviewing partnership visa settings to make them more “culturally appropriate” after policies have split many migrant couples due to a requirement that they live together for 12 months.
Green party MP Ricardo March says he would like the government to revisit the partnership visa category and make good on their election promise.
“Queer couples who may be facing discrimination or countries where couples can’t live together before marriage, are lumped in what we call the general visitor visa scheme. And that that was never a solution prior to the pandemic,” March says.
“That was a bandaid measure that was taken because of the uproar from people from particularly India who were in culturally arranged marriages who were not qualifying for partner visas.”
“The biggest thing I expect for 2022 is a noose around immigration." – Katy Armstrong, immigration advisor
When the border closed, they stopped processing partnership visas which also did not qualify for exemptions.
“We know that it's Labour's manifesto to review partnership visas to make them culturally competent, but yet we haven't really seen anything.”
But Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi’s office told Newsroom, this issue will not be on the minister’s agenda for 2022.
“Partnership visa settings are not scheduled for review in 2022. However, the Minister of Immigration says it is the Government’s intention to address possible changes to partnership visas in this Parliamentary term.”
Frozen visas and legal action
Immigration lawyer Pooja Sundar says 2022 will be a busy year for her firm as it handles court cases that could have wider repercussions on many migrant families split up due to Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi’s decision to suspend and then cancel visa applications.
Sundar’s client University of Auckland professor Michael Whitbrock alleges Faafoi failed to properly consider the obligations international conventions, which New Zealand ratified, placed on him.
Whitbrock has been separated from his husband, a Chinese citizen, since January last year.
The couple are in a genuine and stable relationship, but due to the suspension on issuing visas, Witbrock’s partner has not been granted a visa nor been given a border exemption. Offshore temporary visas won’t be processed until August 2022 although borders are set to reopen to foreigners from April. The hearing will take place in the new year.
Sundar says this year both Immigration NZ and the minister in charge have had a number of lawsuits taken against them as well as decisions by the courts and the Ombudsman criticising their operation.
And she expects to see more changes by immigration to follow to tighten their operation manual.
“I'm particularly interested to see how the minister reacts to different sectors of government and the judiciary as they come out with further decisions. And whether that's done in a knee-jerk manner or whether there's a thought process in place that takes into account human rights, the general rights of migrants and New Zealanders.”
In December Immigration New Zealand clarified its official instructions after it unlawfully paused visa processing of a group of Afghan nationals after misinterpreting its policy.
Sundar says she would like to see Immigration NZ consult experts in the industry more as it plans its border opening.
“We are at the coalface of issues relating to migrants so it’s important to get those people around the table to consult and potentially provide feedback on policies or processes.”
She says for the past year meetings with immigration have mainly been them disseminating information on policies already announced.
“I just think it’s going to be a year of so many changes and so many policies being introduced. We’re probably going to be inundated with immigration updates and news all the time.”
