I support the bigot's right to speak out, as if I start limiting them, they may start limiting me.
I also support my right to ignore them.

- Laura Packer
 

When Is a Hero a Jerk?

Charles Lindbergh, an American, was the first pilot to fly an airplane non-stop across the Atlantic.  He doesn't sound like he thought there was any other direction worth going:

"Aviation is a tool especially shaped for Western hands, a scientific art which others only copy in a mediocre fashion; another barrier between the teeming millions of Asia and the Grecian inheritance of Europe - one of the priceless possessions which permit the White race to live at all in a sea of Yellow, Black and Brown...

"We can have peace and security only as long as we band together to preserve that most priceless possession, our inheritance of European blood, only so long as we guard ourselves against attack by foreign armies and dilution by foreign races."

- "Aviation, Geography and Race"
Readers Digest 1939

Source: Anderson Valley Advertiser, Boonville, California

The most current policies are discussed in an article at the bottom of the page...

Outline in Line

Meeting with Australian Counterpart Very Positive

The Minister of Immigration, Lianne Dalziel, said today her meeting with Australian counterpart Philip Ruddock and his parliamentary secretary Senator Kay Patterson was very positive.  "It's great to see the Australian Minister of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs here so early in the life of this coalition Government," Lianne Dalziel said.  "It was a good opportunity to outline the direction this Government is heading in terms of Immigration, especially in respect of migrant settlement and refugee resettlement."

Lianne Dalziel told Mr Ruddock that New Zealand would be focussing its efforts on achieving positive settlement outcomes for migrants and refugees.  "Because a range of agencies are responsible for different components of settlement policy (for example, employment, business investment opportunities, ESOL learning and community integration), there is a need to provide an integrated oversight mechanism within Government to ensure the best outcomes," she said.  "The previous National-led Government placed far too much emphasis on the number of people coming across our border and not enough emphasis on making sure those people were well settled into our country."

Lianne Dalziel also took the opportunity to seek advice from her Australian counterparts in terms of their experience of industry self-regulation with respect to immigration consultants.  They have undertaken to provide information about their experience, which has been in place for almost 3 years.  She said Mr Ruddock was also keen to see New Zealand and Australia continue to work together in international fora with respect to people trafficking and irregular migrants.  "Although Australia has borne the brunt of sea borne illegal arrivals, I believe it is important that we work with Australia to address what is an international problem.

"New Zealand has a very special relationship with Australia.  It is our trans-Tasman cousin, and I see visits like this as an opportunity to strengthen and build on that relationship," Lianne Dalziel said.

Source: Press Release New Zealand Government 26 April 2000

What I don't understand is why immigration is so political.  It seems to me that someone is missing the very human face on each and every one of those immigrants.  Immigrants are like recruits in boot camp - they are stripped of all the social supports they've learned to rely on.  Initially, the government functions in the role of Sergeant, or even parent.  The attitudes we experienced in our attempt to immigrate ranged from indifferent to hostile.  WE were thoroughly vetted to achieve our immigrant status, yet I couldn't help but wonder at the vetting process used to select most of the people we ultimately had to deal with.

Immigrants Go Through Oz Back Door?

Source: keyvisa.com by Nick Chavez

Aussies To Get Tough On NZ Migrants

by Peter Fowler

Australia's Immigration Minister, Phillip Ruddock, is reportedly about to tell New Zealand to change its immigration laws to stop almost 10,000 people a year entering Australia "through the back door".  The Sunday Telegraph newspaper said the Australian government will make it clear that as many as half the annual Kiwi arrivals there are not welcome.  It said the number of migrants, primarily from poor Asian countries, who were using New Zealand as a launch pad to go to Australia has soared in the past decade from 958 per year to 9,744.

"Third country" migrants have to serve only three years' citizenship in New Zealand before they are eligible to live and work in Australia.  The Sunday Telegraph said Australia was considering tough measures, such as reintroduction of visas to visit Australia.

Australia's welfare bill for former New Zealanders is more than $800 million.

Source: © NewsRoom 2000 3 December 2000

I find articles like this truly puzzling.  It seems to imply that New Zealand has an open-door policy and lets in riff-raff.  Yet the immigration laws prevent this.  Assuming the NZ immigration laws are followed (and I have no reason - personal experience notwithstanding - to think they aren't followed to the letter), the objective measured "quality" of the immigrant should be equal or better than the average Kiwi (that is, more money than average, better qualifications than average, etc).  So what, exactly, are they even talking about?  Unless this another way of saying (once again) that they just don't like Asians and Pacific Islanders.

Maybe, like Lindbergh, they're guarding themselves against "dilution by foreign races"?

Consultants Say New Policies Will Turn Immigrants off NZ

The Government's "panic-driven" policy switches on immigration will effectively turn skilled migrants off New Zealand and send the country into economic decline, say some immigration consultants.  A surprise overhaul of immigration policy announced yesterday shut the door to an estimated 20,000 hopeful immigrants.  Announcing the amendments, Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel said it would cost the Government $9 million in refunded fees.

However, New Zealand Association for Migration chairman Bill Milnes told NZPA today the Government had not done its homework and the changes were likely to cost a lot more.  "I think she's picked 20,000 because she can live with that up to a cost of $10 million, but I suspect the costs will be considerably higher on refunds."  He said there were two main problems with the bill: the way in which it was being rushed through, which he believed was to over-ride a high court decision, and secondly, the lack of consultation with the industry.

In November, the Government attempted to impose stricter English language tests on potential migrants retrospectively.  The Association for Migration and Investment challenged the policy in the High Court, arguing it had been wrongly implemented, and the court ruled against the Government in May.  "The bill was introduced quite blatantly to overturn the high court decision after the minister had already gone to appeal," Mr Milnes said.  "The legislation is there to try and avoid the due process of law - what we are concerned about is that if Immigration is allowed to write retrospective legislation in immigration, what's to stop them doing it in health, welfare, tax or whatever?  Very serious principles are at stake."

He said he had "no problem" with introducing new policy, but he had yet to see any details on the plan, and it was of concern that the minister was "refusing" to talk to industry.  "She seems to have real antipathy to an industry that is talking with the people, meeting them face to face, getting to know them.  We know what the issues are and when she comes to us again with a fait-accompli policy announcement, we say 'But minister, what about this and what about that?'  This has been brought in in panic, it's short-term planning, it has to be because the November changes were meant to overcome shortcomings in the general skills category, so at maximum she's had since November to get this in place and in the minimum, since we won the court case and she realised she got it wrong."  It was "quite frightening" that such important legislation could be written in such an ad hoc manner, Mr Milnes said.

Ms Dalziel said the changes would give priority to those who meet the intent of the skilled migration policy.  "New Zealanders do not want to see skilled migrants driving taxis, cleaning offices and cooking hamburgers," she said.  However, Mr Milnes said that was exactly the policy the Government wanted.  "When they wrote that policy, the term they used was 'it will increase the level of the gene pool in New Zealand'.  At that stage, there was no concern about nuclear physicists driving taxis."  In fact, given the choice, most people would rather be a taxi driver in New Zealand than a nuclear physicist in Pakistan, he said.  You ask them, and 100% of the time I've been told 'Give us New Zealand any time, this is our country, we love it, we want to be here'.  The Government has got to sort out what it wants - there shouldn't be this continual political door-slamming thing to ease the conscience of politicians...  They can't screw people around like this; they're dealing with people's lives, it's fundamental to New Zealand - we're all migrants."

Immigration policy had been "flip-flopping" for the last decade at least, he said.  "The doors were slammed in 1991, then they had to crank them open again and get the roundabout going through 1993, 1994 and 1995, and suddenly in 1996, (Winston) Peters emerged on the scene again, immigration became politically unpopular and they slammed the door.  In October 2001, we were being abused by the immigration service as an industry for not spending more money going to China and marketing our services.  Then in February 2002, they were telling us they had more people than could handle, so were not going to make any more decisions until July 2002.  In August 2002, the (New Zealand) Herald reported there were 75,000 in the queue and we've only got a target of 45,000 a year, but it wasn't until November that they bring in retrospective legislation to try and get rid of this backlog."

The problem was the Minister had "artificially" kept the pass mark at 24 points "because she didn't want to have to worry about changing it every week", he said.  "Then all of a sudden we realise we've got all these people in the queue and panic and get rid of the queue.  You can't treat people like that... it's disgusting."  Most people had been waiting over two years while the Government "quite cynically" put their applications on hold, he said.

It is estimated the loss of 20,000 potential citizens will cost New Zealand up to $2 billion in investment.  "In the election year, we'll suddenly see the cost to the country through lack of migrants, and they'll be back into panic mode, opening up the doors again."  While there were some "irresponsible" immigration consultants, the Government could not blame any business for working within the law it had made, he said.  "The problem is the way the Government marketed New Zealand for a long time, it's incompetence and mismanagement on the part of Immigration and this chopping and changing will cost us."

Meanwhile, the head of the Industry Training Federation, Darel Hall, said the legislation would play a useful part in addressing skill shortages.  "The minister has stated that the new system will mean that skilled tradespeople are more likely to be able to come to New Zealand," he said in a statement.  Industry training organisations (ITOs) had been legislated to identify "current and future skill needs" within industry, he said.  The Industry Training Federation would make an assessment of the details of the proposed legislative changes, bringing together the knowledge and experience of ITOs, and contribute a submission to the select committee.

Source: Stuff [New Zealand] 2 July 2003

If you can't figure out a way to regulate immigration consultants, just bypass them?

For more articles on immigration, emigration, undocumented workers, overstayers, how to get in: NZ and Australia, costs, H1-B workers, scams, and quality of life please click the "Up" button below to take you to the Index page for this Immigration section.