Times of India's launch has been plagued by visa issues for their staff. Photo / Supplied
Times of India's launch has been plagued by visa issues for their staff. Photo / Supplied
For restaurateur Areeb Mirza, immigration rules have soured efforts to offer Auckland diners a wider choice of Indian cuisine.
Mirza this month opened Times of India, a restaurant that aims to celebrate his homeland’s independence, while going beyond the usual Indian staples.
But that ambition has been frustrated. “We were supposed to open Times of India in time for Christmas to cash out on the biggest month of the year. We couldn’t,” says Mirza.
Instead, the restaurant’s opening was delayed for months as chefs waited on Immigration NZ approval. Mirza last week received approval for the final chef he was seeking - having started the application in September.
”Immigration is a nightmare,” says Mirza, and being dormant from December to February meant three months of potential earnings and wages went down the drain.
“We hired staff expecting we would have chefs arrive at the right time. We hired the front-of-house staff and we let them go because we couldn’t give them enough hours.”
He calculates that the hit to the business was as much as $200,000. “I have to keep borrowing from the bank. I borrowed against the family home because I depleted everything I had.”
Mirza is not new to the restaurant business: the 1947 Eatery on Federal St was his first homage to India’s fight for independence and the bloody partition that followed.
He says his new venture, Times of India, pays tribute to the many journalists who risked their lives documenting the torn remains of India left in the wake of colonial rule, and to the Herald newsroom across the road.
Mirza says 1940s India “was a time where a lot of journalists lost their lives because they were documenting what happened after the British left, and the state they left the country in”.
On Friday August 15, 1947, the Times of India front page heralded the “Birth of India’s freedom”. Today, Mirza’s menu features a reproduction of that front page, which also takes up a floor-to-ceiling space on a window facing out onto the street.
Times of India reflects authentic Indian cooking according to owner Areeb Mirza. Photo / Supplied
“The front page that day spoke about independence and freedom, and how India was going to be different from this morning on,” he says.
“At midnight, the British signed this act to say they’re leaving. Then, the next morning this was the front page.” However, says Mirza, this was the beginning of the country’s struggle.
As the British left, he says, they made sure that India was divided, and that division led to one of the largest and most brutal mass migrations in history.
“With that came a massive issue of separation between these people. There were a lot of deaths, there was a lot of killing, there was a lot of sectarian violence.
“It’s just the mayhem of the situation,” Mirza says.
The Times of India's front page, August 15 1947. Photo / Supplied
Seventy-five years on, he says the subcontinent’s people still ask: “what has freedom brought to us?”
For Mirza, who hails from Hyderabad, it means having the opportunity to “change things up” in Indian cuisine.
“Indian food has a 6000-year history,” he says. “It’s authentically one of the most healthy and medically beneficial cuisines.”
Indian food attracted traders from Europe and the Middle East for centuries. “India was the hub of food and research,” he says.
“Let’s not forget the British came to India because we had so much to offer from a business perspective, from food to literature. We were excelling in the world.
“We want to change the concept of Indian food from butter chicken and garlic naan to something more authentic.”
Although both takeaway staples feature on the Times of India menu, Mirza hopes diners will be open to lesser-known South Indian dishes.
Immigration has been a "nightmare" ahead of Times of India's launch in Tāmaki Makaurau. Photo / Supplied
But he says the complexity and rich history of Indian food mean finding staff in Aotearoa is a challenge.
“We understand the Government is pushing to make sure we hire local. We would love to, but that’s not easy.
“I have to dedicate a manager for half a week just to chase up cases. Each call [with Immigration] is at least a four-hour wait on the phone,” he says.
“We’ve been trying to explain to Immigration that one rule does not apply to everyone. The Government has not realised there are ethnic communities in New Zealand.”
Mirza says if the Government wants to respect migrant workers, it must create policies that work for this country’s diverse communities.
Times of India on Hardinge Street. Photo / Supplied
When asked about their experiences with Immigration, one Times of India staff member says it’s very difficult.
The staffer says the current accreditation scheme has added three months to the formerly simple process of changing employers as a migrant worker.
“For a job before [accreditation], that took like 10 days. Now it’s taking too long,” they say.
“I couldn’t even resign at that time because I need to give one month notice over there, but the process takes three months. It’s complicated.”
Mirza says the process “takes the mickey” out of hardworking migrant staff.
Immigration NZ general manager Richard Owen told the Herald, “visa processing timeframes are based on how long it takes for most applications in that category to be assessed.
“Applications may take longer than the stated processing time if there is information missing at the time the application is lodged, if additional information is needed, or if third-party checks are required,” Owen said.
He added: “[Immigration NZ] has limited control over how long it takes for an applicant or a third party to provide this information, which makes it difficult to give average processing times for applications that aren’t straightforward.
“The Immigration New Zealand website remains the best place for up-to-date information on processing times.”
Minister for Tourism Peeni Henare announced a new accreditation scheme for migrant workers at the start of the month.
That included the establishment of a Tourism and Hospitality Accord, described as “a voluntary employer accreditation scheme that identifies those businesses in tourism and hospitality who are treating their staff well”.
Mirza hopes the process of hiring migrants will be less complex in the coming years, to ease pressures on the job market.
“We are still very short on the labour market. They’re absolutely short and workers just have the wrong end of the stick.”
— This report was produced under the Public Interest Journalism initiative, funded by NZ on Air
