Settlement in the Bay made easy for migrants

Annual Sikh Parade makes its way up Burrows Street, Tauranga. Photo/file

Migrants looking for help settling into the Bay of Plenty can access a new walk-in clinic at the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB).

Tauranga manager Kim Saunders says volunteers have been trained to lead migrants through processes that may be different from those in their native countries, such as renting a home, registering with a doctor and enrolling their children in school.

"All the usual sorts of things English-speaking people will find challenging themselves, like jobs - does my CV need updating because I'm from a different country? What groups are out there I can join?" Saunders says much of the information is accessible through the bureau's website (www.cab.org.nz), but trained volunteers are available for face-to-face meetings.

The bureau earlier this year started offering the clinics from its offices at 38 Hamilton Street from 1-4pm Tuesday through Friday.

The service requires no appointment; everyone is welcome. Saunders says the help, like all CAB offerings, is confidential, free and non-judgmental. She also emphasises assistance does not require New Zealand citizenship. "We've tried to stress that in our advertising, you don't have to be a citizen to use the Citizen's Advice Bureau. Some translations of the word in non-English cultures, they're using 'citizen' literally."

The bureau seeks to replace some of the services provided by Settlement Support New Zealand, which had functioned under the umbrella of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (Immigration NZ is part of the MBIE). Prior to restructuring, Settlement Support New Zealand (SSNZ) paid two co-ordinators in Tauranga who helped migrants and liaised with employers.

The ministry said it discontinued the Settlement Support brand nationwide last July because it was not the most efficient way to deliver services.

A MBIE spokeswoman says the annual budget for two Settlement Support providers in Tauranga and Rotorua was $200,000, which is $100,000 per provider. MBIE national migrant settlement manager Judi Altinkaya said the new settlement information delivery model was not introduced as a cost-saving exercise and no funding was cut.

Ms Altinkaya says 30 CAB offices throughout the country offer settlement information, workshops and seminars through a $570,000 annual contract with Immigration New Zealand.

MBIE last year said face-to-face services would now target skilled migrants and their families, business investors, international students, as well as wealthy investors, who make up 42 per cent of migrant inflows.

The region's migrant skills retention manager is based in Tauranga and works with employers, education providers and other organisations in the Bay of Plenty and Waikato.

The other 58 per cent of migrants - those who fall outside the skilled, student or investor category - have a national information service of online and phone support to call upon, which has replaced local settlement co-ordinators. Ms Altinkaya says all phone calls and emails are handled through the Immigration Contact Centre, which "significantly extends service availability for migrants to a six-day, 12-hour service".

But many people in organisations that work with migrants feared the shift in settlement services would mean clients might not get enough help navigating the New Zealand systems.

The Tauranga manager of English Language Partners, a not-for-profit training school, said there was concern many migrants would fall through the cracks. Philippa Cairns said: "What about all the people we're dealing with who are perhaps working in kiwifruit, renting houses, not able to put a great deal of money into education?

"Skilled migrants with high levels of language are able to find out how a community works, but it's that other layer we need to support, because we need them. Without migrants, I hate to think what the kiwifruit industry would be like."

Mrs Cairns says a group of migrant service providers has been meeting every six to seven weeks to help support the CAB's settlement service. The group includes representatives from Careers NZ, Multicultural Tauranga, the Bay of Plenty District Health Board, English Language Partners and, occasionally, council officials.

Mrs Cairns says: "It's the same people, but now it's locally driven, rather than driven by a government department."

Multicultural Tauranga president Barry Reid says his organisation has seen more employment-related inquiries since the shift in delivery of new migrant services. He says the not-for-profit community group is considering seeking funding for job skills programmes.

"We think there's demand out there, and there could be opportunities to work in that area," he says.

"It's about helping migrant people, who've ended up at our door, make steps to finding employment in a different environment."

Saunders says her volunteers have had extra training to handle migrant issues, but mostly, "It's business as usual. We'll find the information for them, send them with links they can look at, help with things like IRD numbers, filling out visa forms, opening a bank account, their rights as consumers ... and we have a JP [Justice of the Peace] here three times a week, too."

Saunders says two volunteers are able to accompany people to offices, such as Work and Income and the doctor's surgery. "It's a specialist service and we must do more training on it in the next six or eight months."


Migrants in BOP
Based on the 2013 census, 3924 migrants arrived in the Bay of Plenty in the previous two years.
Source: Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

New migrant help
Citizens Advice Bureau - walk-in clinics Tuesday-Friday, 1-4pm
38 Hamilton St, Tauranga
www.cab.org.nz
Immigration New Zealand
www.newzealandnow.govt.nz
Multicultural Tauranga
www.trmc.co.nz
New Zealand Newcomers Network
www.newcomers.co.nz