The New Zealand People’s Party (NZPP) is putting families first in its new immigration policy announced today by seeking to reopen and overhaul Parent Resident Visa, Family Re-unification Visa and Family Visitor Visa in a manner that aims to fulfil the long felt need of all ethnic communities in NZ, especially the new migrants.
“Families that uproot their lives and move to New Zealand are taking a brave chance on our small but successful country.
“We want to see families reunite in New Zealand, together in our beautiful country. We want to change the system, so it is easier for families to be together while bringing prosperity to the economy,” a media release of the Party’s Immigration Policy says.
Unlike other bigger mainstream political parties, NZPP is staying away from the murkier debate around numbers of immigrants arriving in NZ, especially the number of international students.
However, the party is offering compassionate treatment to all those international students who have already arrived in New Zealand.
“Fair play is a big part of what makes New Zealand special and we want to extend this to the thousands of international students that come here every year,” the press release says.
Students found to be in low-quality courses will be granted a two-year work permit with a requirement to become qualified in a Skilled Migrant Category occupation or an occupation on the Skilled Shortage Lists, the party says.
This is even when the party would have a clear understanding that international students are not eligible to vote and have no consequence on this general elections.
However, one major proposal of some significance for the NZ international education export industry being made by the party is to introduce a compulsory requirement of all education consultants (even overseas based) to become Licensed Immigration Advisors.
This is a major commitment to overhaul the NZ immigration and international education industry.
It is important to note that overseas-based unregulated education consultants who allegedly indulged in fraudulent practices in tempering visa documents of unsuspecting students were at the heart of student deportation issue that has rocked NZ in the past few months leading to a few students taking refuge in a Ponsonby Church in Auckland.
Till date, no mainstream political party has demonstrated any intent to regulate those education agents.
In that regard, NZPP is showing some commitment to NZ’s reputation as international education provider destination rather than drooping into a free for all immigration debate.
However, to what extent this small and a purely ethnic political party, according to some political commentators, will succeed in attracting the attention of the mainstream media and the wider Kiwi audience remains to be seen.
Apparently, the party had yet not been able to appear on the radar of mainstream media as evident in a Newshub poll recently, which polled another small political party, The Opportunities Party (TOP), at a notable high of 0.8 per cent.
For a detailed overview and key offerings of the party’s immigration policy on www.indianweekender.co.nz