Dialogue: We're lowering the barrier to talent

By LIANNE DALZIEL

When I became Minister of Immigration, I quickly came to the conclusion that New Zealand needed an immigration programme that focused on settlement outcomes rather than numbers coming into the country, and that in terms of residency approvals the balance should be in favour of talent and skills.

Both these views were shaped by my belief that the benefits of immigration must be shared by all - migrants and receiving communities - to ensure the broad base of acceptance a country built on migration must never lose.

I could see we had residents in New Zealand who couldn't get work, and workers in New Zealand who couldn't get residence. Both situations have undermined confidence in immigration policy, locally and internationally, and were a direct result of a lack of interest by governments over the past decade in what happened to people after they arrived here.

The present coalition Government has turned that around. The settlement pilots are targeting residents who cannot get work, and the recent announcement of a "talent visa" work-in-progress is one step towards addressing this.

I still cannot believe that the previous Government chose the general skills category as the residual category. If I hadn't held the points at 24 points from last October, family and humanitarian approvals would have exceeded business and skilled migration for the 2000/2001 year.

As it happened, we were able to achieve the 60 per cent in favour of the skilled and business category, which is now Government policy.

When we hosted the first Government-business forum last October, one message to come through was that we needed to remove perceived barriers to attracting skills, talent and business to New Zealand.

The frustrations expressed by businesses centred on aspects of immigration policy that prevented them from bringing in the kind of talent they needed to expand their businesses.

We have responded with several initiatives that focus on assisting the entry of highly skilled workers and business migrants. The New Zealand Immigration Programme - which gives residency priority to skilled and business migrants - underpins our desire to deal with issues that have been in the too-hard basket for many years. The Immigration Service is now firmly geared to facilitating entry, as opposed to border control.

Before the immigration programme announcement, we had already paved the way for spouses of long-term business migrants and work-permit holders to be granted work permits without having to satisfy labour market tests. By doing this, families weren't discouraged from choosing New Zealand as a destination and we were ahead of the field, now that an international lobbying body has been established to encourage countries to adopt this approach.

We've already agreed to extend special provisions that exist for IT workers to include industry or occupational groups that can demonstrate a shortage of highly skilled workers in a specific area. This allows industry groups to seek exceptions to permanent or temporary immigration policy if they can show a genuine skills shortage where the sector contributes to our economic development.

The other area we are working on as a priority is an explicit link between work permit and residence policy, and allowing for some flexibility in the strict application of residence criteria.

The "talent visa", which will be developed before the end of the year, will recognise that not everyone fits within the strictly drawn lines of the general skills category. We want to recognise that people who have shown a commitment to New Zealand by filling a market niche need to have some long-term security about their status here. These are talented people who, despite the specialist or skilled nature of their occupations, may not meet strict definitions of current residence policy. Yet they have been living here for a number of years on renewed work permits.

I have heard stories of people with specific skills in language and knowledge of culture from another country who have been unable to gain work permits or residency because they didn't fit strict definitions of policy requirements. Yet these people have been crucial to businesses expanding overseas trade.

All policies are open to constant review and ready adjustment to respond to what is today a global marketplace and a global workforce. New Zealand has much to offer, and many will choose quality of life over the higher salaries offered elsewhere.

The NZIS slogan is New Zealand - the Right Choice. Our challenge is to ensure that the choice is the right one for us all.