Multicultural Labour Canterbury branch and Labour Canterbury organised a Q&A session with the Immigration minister Iain Lees-Galloway at YMCA centre, Bishopdale, Christchurch, last week on Wednesday 18 July. More than 150 people from various communities around Christchurch attended the Q&A session. The Indian community was well represented by the individuals and the Indian organisations’ representatives. Labour MPs Ms Priyanca Radhakrishnan, Hon Dr Megan Woods, Hon Ruth Dyson and Jo Luxton were also part of the Q&A session.
The tone of the evening was set by Councillor Jimmy Chen, who started the evening by outlining his journey as a migrant in New Zealand to becoming a councillor. Labour MP Ms Priyanca Radhakrishnan then shared her story of moving from India as an international student to becoming an MP for Labour. However, the moment that everyone was waiting for arrived when Hon Dr Megan Woods introduced Hon Iain Lees-Galloway and handed him the stage for the rest of the evening.
The minister started his speech by touching upon how his father arrived in the country and settled here. Then he outlined the work Labour has done in the past for the welfare of migrants and policies that have been introduced under various Labour governments in the past.The minister also mentioned the immigration changes that are in the pipeline for the international students. He said that the changes are required because current policies allow people to stay in New Zealand on temporary visas without any clear pathway. The minister said that the government is committed to ensuring that migrants are not exploited by anyone and that people with the right skills that are required by the country are retained.
The minister also touched on the issue of New Zealand increasing their refugee quota every year – eventually taking it to 1500 a year with Christchurch as one of the main settlement areas along with Auckland.
After the speech, the minister welcomed questions from the public. Some of the questions that garnered most attention were the changes to the student visa and the parent category visas. Minister clarified that those currently in the country would not be affected by it, however changes are underway to ensure that right skills are found as what’s required for the country.
Upon being asked that when the parent category would be reopened, the minister acknowledged the fact that New Zealand is failing to retain the talent partially because migrants are unable to bring their parents in the country. However, he said that he was looking into it and no timeline has been set as to when the parents category would be reopened.
The minister answered several questions ranging from visa for the partners from arranged marriages to the discrimination in allocating visas. The Q&A session ended with refreshments and people interacting with the minister.