The immigration minister's purge on the parent visa category earlier today and that too by an exorbitant 63% is a direct hit on the hopes of many new Indian migrants in New Zealand.
More so, it is a hit, if not an assault, on the very essence of Indian culture.
An important part of the Indian culture, and of course of many other cultures, is taking care of their parents. One important reason being that in most of the cases the state has not been resourceful enough to take care of the old and non-working people.
In such a situation, culture has taken the responsibility of looking after the old and non-working people, in the form of attaching social significance on the citizenry itself, to look after their own parents.
As a consequence, people from such cultures, like the Indian culture, in this case, are often at crossroads emotionally to leave their parents behind, and pursue jobs and better lives in distant countries.
To such people, an option of parent visa category, always offer a much needed inner solace, and emotional well-being, required to be an effective skilled worker in the modern industrial economy.
Fortunately, not everyone has to bring their parents, because, in most of the cases, parents themselves dread the language and cultural barriers, and social isolation, that they have to face at their children's new home.
It is only those few, who are really alone and by themselves, without any social support back home, who are willing to pay the cost of a language barrier, social and cultural isolation at their children's chosen homes, who eventually decide to emigrate with their children.
So an availability of reasonable opportunity of parent visa category goes a long way in ensuring emotional well-being of residents of this country.
Today, the arbitrary purging of the quota of parent visa category has taken a heavy toll on the emotional health of many migrant workers in this country.
To be fair to the government and the other residents of New Zealand, the concerns that immigrating parents put a strain on the state resources, and divert valuable resources away from other tax-payer residents is absolutely unprejudiced.
There is no ambiguity in this regard to acknowledging concerns of the fellow taxpayers and the government.
What is argued here, is that the government could have placed policy structures to encourage new migrants seeking to bring their parents from their home countries, and provide for their health and general well-being without being a strain on the public resources, instead of a knee-jerk reduction by 63% of quota.
To put it this way, most of the migrants from such cultures, like that of Indian culture, are "socially trained" to provide for their parent's health and well-being, without being dependent on the state.
Withdrawing of support of state-funded services would have been a just policy, instead of an arbitrary cut off numbers in the parent visa category.