Turei Metiria: Immigration Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Turei Metiria: Immigration Amendment Bill — First Reading 
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METIRIA TUREI (Green) 
: 
 The Greens are very concerned about the Immigration Amendment Bill which amends the process in the general skills category. However we will support it to the select committee so that our concerns can be worked through in the appropriate forum. 
The current Immigration Service in general has some very serious problems. It has absolutely no reference to or consideration of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the concerns of Maori as tangata whenua in this country. Nor does the immigration system take into account in any way the ecological constraints of the natural environment of this country—issues such as the ideal ecological footprint population protections or policy. Those issues are crucial to the development of an immigration policy and process that is just to those who want to come to live here meets the varied needs of the New Zealand population both now and in the future and does not compromise ecological sustainability. 
The current system is entirely demand driven based on economic drivers and not on the social and cultural needs of the whole New Zealand community. This new bill takes a “by invite only” approach rather than an approach entirely driven by demand. We can see at first instance how this new approach seems attractive. Greater emphasis on prioritisation of skill shortages is essential to make sure that we do not elevate applicants’ expectations and that we are clear about the sorts of skills that are valuable to the country at any particular point in time. 
A focus on regional employment is vital to encourage regional and community development away from the big city centres. It is also crucial that serious considerations are given to the conditions within which an immigrant and his or her family are to settle into community life what personal resources are needed by them and what other resources need to be provided to make the transition from one country to another a successful transition. 
However the bill does not interpret these issues into an immigration framework that we consider appropriate. The Greens oppose a process by which some applicants are considered more worthy by a faceless nameless official and then shoulder-tapped to apply for residency. Under this bill once a person meets the threshold he or she is eligible to be invited. It is an invitation issued entirely at the discretion of the Immigration Service using criteria that are determined solely by it. Those criteria are not open to public scrutiny or assessment. 
The bill sets out only the very bare bones of the framework on which the criteria for the process will be hung. The community has absolutely no say on what those criteria are or on how they are to be applied. There is no transparency or accountability to the New Zealand public and of course Maori remain completely excluded from any input. It is this sort of secrecy in the immigration process that leads to ethnic conflict in our community. The failure to provide the public with any information about the process heightens uncertainty and even fear. This in turn can lead to prejudice and a breakdown in community relationships. 
An immigration policy that is kept from the public and for which there is no public accountability is not conducive to healthy ethnic relations in the country or to the ready settlement of immigrants in the community. Similarly the lack of accountability opens further the opportunity for corruption and discrimination in the process of deciding who is to be invited to reside here and who is not. This is a very real concern. 
There is a history in this country of treating immigrants particularly those of colour with racist disdain. We need look only at the Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act under which contrary to human rights Western Samoans many who came here initially at the behest of various Governments to work in unskilled menial jobs were stripped of their citizenship. Of course many members will remember more clearly than I the dawn raids of the 1970s. 
Nothing in this bill provides any protection to those applicants who may have been denied an invitation to apply because of some discriminatory view by the Immigration Service and its officials. I am not necessarily either talking about individuals but of the institutional racism that is both pervasive and hidden throughout a wide variety of institutions in this country. In the past the Greens have criticised the raising of the English language level test out of a very real concern that the test selects for native English-language speakers thereby limiting the range of countries from which immigrants are deemed eligible. There is also the real concern in this bill about immigrants being discriminated against because of their country of origin and their political social or religious beliefs. There is no protection against those concerns. The bill goes even further towards restricting the rights of applicants to appeal the decisions of the Immigration Service. 
The Greens can appreciate the drive to change the general business skills category and the problems that this legislation is intended to address but there are serious flaws that undermine the opportunity for a just and transparent process in which the New Zealand public can have confidence. We will support the bill to the select committee in order to raise these and other issues and then we will see how far we can get.