Labour takes a shot on being ‘socially progressive’ through immigration policy
Labour Leader Andrew Little is taking a giant leap of faith by seeking to reclaim the tag of being socially progressive which has largely become irrelevant in the last nine years of the Labour Party being out of government while announcing a massive reduction in immigration numbers in this election year.
Labour is calling to make changes to immigration settings that will reduce net immigration by 20,000-30,000 a year.
The Labour Leader Andrew Little today announced the policy in a manner which can be clearly described as one of their better prepared and well-choreographed policy announcements in recent past with little embarrassing mix-ups in numbers in the conversations following the policy announcement.
The policy calling for a massive reduction of numbers of immigrants between 20 to 30 thousands appeared less provocative and sensational than the first time when Mr Little had casually announced on national television about the Labour’s intent to reduce immigration numbers by “tens of thousands.”
On the contrary, their intent has more stealth this time as evident in the increase of numbers by two to three times than what they previously proposed, clearly showing that more planning and preparation has gone behind the release of the policy.
Two things are absolutely clear from this policy announcement.
First – The Labour Party is making a decisive push for the claim of being seen as socially progressive and second – which obviously would pay the maximum price for the first that there would be a drastic reduction in the numbers of international students coming to New Zealand under a Labour government.
The Labour’s claim for being socially progressive is evident in their banking on about 90,000 young Kiwis who are neither in work nor in education and the number of people in training further falling.
“The opportunity exists to train these young people and get them to work, rather than leaving them on benefits,” Mr Little says.
When Labour Leader says that “a developed nation should be able to train enough retail staff to meet its own needs,” then it makes sense, at least in an ideal world.
The Labour Leader was commenting on the fact that the number of “retail supervisor” work visas has increased from 700 to 1,700.
Mr Little is not willing to give up on those 90,000 people who are currently out of work and are largely deemed as ‘unemployable’ by businesses and employers.
Labour’s immigration policy of cutting down on international education in a big manner which is targeting to reduce arrival of international students by around 20-22,000 every year is based on their ability to bring this currently unemployable workforce in the job market.
The Labour’s suggested changes of limiting student visas and their ability to work for low-value courses would result in a tentative fall of 6-10,000 international students arriving in New Zealand.
Similarly, by removing work visas without a job offer for the lower level qualification graduates would be resulting in quelling of another 12,000 international students.
In Labour’s worldview, this workforce has largely been responsible in skewing New Zealand’s job market thus keeping a large chunk of employable Kiwi-work force out of job market.
However, as is said that ideal societies are made in heaven, so Labour will face some challenge to convince businesses and employers who struggle on a day to day basis to find suitable employees to run their businesses effectively.
New Zealand’s current unemployment rate is not unexceptionally high and roughly hovers around a comparably acceptable 5.1 per cent, therefore completely basing their immigration policy on the number of people currently out of job market is a bold commitment, if not altogether unrealistic.
Similarly, expectations from businesses to hire and train one local employee for every new immigrant employee would be a challenging expectation for businesses to meet.
Labour’s immigration policy seeks to overcome this by bringing Exceptional Skills Visa for highly skilled or talented people and introducing a KiwiBuild Visa for residential construction firms and regionalising and rationalising skills shortage lists for businesses.
Regardless of the debate around what numbers would be appropriate for New Zealand’s economy and social infrastructure in embracing new immigrants in a sustainable manner, the Labour’s attempt in reinforcing their socially progressive image is worth noting.
It’s another matter that the immediate cost of this of being socially progressive, would be borne by thousands and thousands of prospective international students in destinations like India who have been visualising New Zealand as a favourable international education destination.
Likewise, it is also for Mr Little and the Labour party to explain
Labour Leader Andrew Little is taking a giant leap of faith by seeking to reclaim the tag of being socially progressive which has largely become irrelevant in the last nine years of the Labour Party being out of government while announcing a massive reduction in immigration numbers in this election...
Labour Leader Andrew Little is taking a giant leap of faith by seeking to reclaim the tag of being socially progressive which has largely become irrelevant in the last nine years of the Labour Party being out of government while announcing a massive reduction in immigration numbers in this election year.
Labour is calling to make changes to immigration settings that will reduce net immigration by 20,000-30,000 a year.
The Labour Leader Andrew Little today announced the policy in a manner which can be clearly described as one of their better prepared and well-choreographed policy announcements in recent past with little embarrassing mix-ups in numbers in the conversations following the policy announcement.
The policy calling for a massive reduction of numbers of immigrants between 20 to 30 thousands appeared less provocative and sensational than the first time when Mr Little had casually announced on national television about the Labour’s intent to reduce immigration numbers by “tens of thousands.”
On the contrary, their intent has more stealth this time as evident in the increase of numbers by two to three times than what they previously proposed, clearly showing that more planning and preparation has gone behind the release of the policy.
Two things are absolutely clear from this policy announcement.
First – The Labour Party is making a decisive push for the claim of being seen as socially progressive and second – which obviously would pay the maximum price for the first that there would be a drastic reduction in the numbers of international students coming to New Zealand under a Labour government.
The Labour’s claim for being socially progressive is evident in their banking on about 90,000 young Kiwis who are neither in work nor in education and the number of people in training further falling.
“The opportunity exists to train these young people and get them to work, rather than leaving them on benefits,” Mr Little says.
When Labour Leader says that “a developed nation should be able to train enough retail staff to meet its own needs,” then it makes sense, at least in an ideal world.
The Labour Leader was commenting on the fact that the number of “retail supervisor” work visas has increased from 700 to 1,700.
Mr Little is not willing to give up on those 90,000 people who are currently out of work and are largely deemed as ‘unemployable’ by businesses and employers.
Labour’s immigration policy of cutting down on international education in a big manner which is targeting to reduce arrival of international students by around 20-22,000 every year is based on their ability to bring this currently unemployable workforce in the job market.
The Labour’s suggested changes of limiting student visas and their ability to work for low-value courses would result in a tentative fall of 6-10,000 international students arriving in New Zealand.
Similarly, by removing work visas without a job offer for the lower level qualification graduates would be resulting in quelling of another 12,000 international students.
In Labour’s worldview, this workforce has largely been responsible in skewing New Zealand’s job market thus keeping a large chunk of employable Kiwi-work force out of job market.
However, as is said that ideal societies are made in heaven, so Labour will face some challenge to convince businesses and employers who struggle on a day to day basis to find suitable employees to run their businesses effectively.
New Zealand’s current unemployment rate is not unexceptionally high and roughly hovers around a comparably acceptable 5.1 per cent, therefore completely basing their immigration policy on the number of people currently out of job market is a bold commitment, if not altogether unrealistic.
Similarly, expectations from businesses to hire and train one local employee for every new immigrant employee would be a challenging expectation for businesses to meet.
Labour’s immigration policy seeks to overcome this by bringing Exceptional Skills Visa for highly skilled or talented people and introducing a KiwiBuild Visa for residential construction firms and regionalising and rationalising skills shortage lists for businesses.
Regardless of the debate around what numbers would be appropriate for New Zealand’s economy and social infrastructure in embracing new immigrants in a sustainable manner, the Labour’s attempt in reinforcing their socially progressive image is worth noting.
It’s another matter that the immediate cost of this of being socially progressive, would be borne by thousands and thousands of prospective international students in destinations like India who have been visualising New Zealand as a favourable international education destination.
Likewise, it is also for Mr Little and the Labour party to explain
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