Call for targeted migrant help

Carol Anderson (right) and Barbara Hill of Settlement Support. Photo/Ruth Keber

A Tauranga woman wants the city council to provide different services for new migrants to the Bay.

Carol Anderson's call follows the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment shift to target more skilled migrants and their families, business investors, international students, as well as rich investors, who make up 42 per cent of the current inflow of migrants.

The move means Settlement Support, the agency which helps migrants settle and stay, is closing.

Mrs Anderson, Settlement Support co-ordinator in Tauranga, said there needed to be a plan put in place for migrants in the Bay after the agency closed on June 30.

"Migrants need a place to learn more about the kiwi employer culture, what they are looking for, what they expect, what kind of questions they can ask and how they can to to make their CVs compatible for the kiwi style," she said.

Mrs Anderson said she would like to see a community hub created within or near the city where vital information can be passed on to newcomers in the area.

"One place that everybody knows they can go for help, when we do a workshop you can see it makes a big difference."

Mrs Anderson said the community hub should be similar to the Katikati Resource Centre where "they have other services coming in, like a free nursing service and work and income which come in once a week and different counselling services".

Mrs Anderson said the agency had more than 533 client enquiries and 511 services provider or employer enquiries in the past year.

Mrs Anderson said she also proposed that the council extend the current Learning Centre in the city library to include job search preparation and CV training, an annual "welcome" afternoon tea for newcomers and assisting agencies, a venue or room for occasional community discussion forums and exploring the concept of Neighbours Day Aotearoa.

The risks involved with not having these services provided would be detrimental to newcomers to the area, she said.

"We would see a lot of people falling through the cracks, start to get too isolated and they would become a social problem."

Tauranga City Councillor Steve Morris said there were plans under way to build a facility that can act as a community hub to host migrant services.

"One of the most important things for a migrant is to be accepted by the citizens of the host country.

"There are some good people coming to our country to contribute skills, talent and money and we need to embrace these people and make them feel welcome and help them to integrate."