The newly-appointed Immigration Minister, Andrew Little, says he will continue to focus on strengthening the rebalance of immigration policy to address labour market demands and streamline visa processing.
Little took over the new role after Michael Wood vacated the post last month.
In an exclusive interview with The Indian Weekender, the 58-year-old shed light on his key priorities, challenges faced by the country's immigration system and his quest to make New Zealand an attractive destination for migrants.
"Our key priorities are to continue the work of strengthening the rebalance of our immigration policy and to make sure that the processing of visa applications continues to be supported. We are achieving our objective of filling skills gaps in our labour market just as quickly as possible."
He acknowledged that there are major demands on New Zealand's immigration system, with people seeking to enter the country for various purposes, including holidays, travel and work opportunities.
"We still have a system recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic, and one of the biggest challenges is ensuring we have as efficient and effective system as possible. We have a new processing system as well as new staff running that system. So, I see that we're getting incrementally better every day. I'm confident that we have a system responding as effectively as possible to the demands placed on it," the minister stated.
Among the communities hardest hit by acute labour shortage are migrants and small businesses, many of them Kiwi-Indians. To address this issue, Little emphasised the rebalance strategy, which aims to make it easier to fill genuine skills gaps where local talent may not be available.
Highly skilled workers facing global shortages will find New Zealand an attractive destination, with fast-tracked pathways to residency and simplified application processes, he said.
"The continued growth in net migration shows the government’s immigration rebalance is striking the right balance as we tackle labour shortages," he pointed out.
When asked about any possible changes in the pipeline, the minister said, "We are constantly reviewing issues that come up and making sure that we tweak the system to be as effective as possible."
Little also talked about the much-anticipated decision on overstayer amnesty. “We think it is imperative that people have certainty, that people don't feel as if they are in some sort of grey zone. We have to balance the need to look after people humanely with the fact that, as a small country, we must manage our immigration very carefully.
“We have had a look at amnesties in the past. In the end, it is important to have an immigration system where we attract people…where everybody understands the rules, everybody sticks to the rules, and they find the rules easy to follow. When we have overstayers in the way we do, it is often because people have not understood what is required of them.”
From October 9, 2023, the current settings of Skilled Migrant Category (SMC) resident visa will be replaced with a points system that sets a clear skills threshold for residence and offers several ways for people to demonstrate their skill level.
The new six-point uncapped SMC visa will provide a pathway for residency for skilled migrants who meet the specific criteria in either their income, qualification, occupational registered skills, or New Zealand-based work experience.
Sharing insights into the reason behind the intended changes, Little said, “It is part of the immigration rebalance. Many industries are calling for workers because of the global labour shortage, and the new skilled migrant settings will help attract and retain skilled migrants to fill the medium to long-term needs that would take longer for New Zealanders to fill.
So, the new skilled migrant category also complements other pathways to residence such as the green list and other measures we are taking.”
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