Auckland Mayor says a fair debate over immigration is needed

Auckland Mayor John Banks fears social tensions in the city will worsen unless improvements are made to immigration policy.

He said he had no doubt New Zealand First leader Winston Peters was "tapping into a deep vein of concern" by highlighting immigration issues.

Although some of Mr Peters' points were true, they were also hurtful and should not be presented in a way that blamed the people themselves, Mr Banks said.

"It is a very serious issue that needs to be publicly debated without being unfair."

Around 150,000 of the Asians in New Zealand live in the Auckland urban area, where the population is around 1.1 million.

Mr Banks said Auckland needed immigration to reach its full potential, but for years he had criticised immigration policy for lacking balance.

"We need to spend a lot more time encouraging people from elsewhere to come to New Zealand."

Some of the socio-economic problems being caused by immigration were worrying.

While he did not identify people by their race, he said he did identify them by their ability, or otherwise, to make a significant contribution.

The character of Auckland society was changing dramatically, which some found hard to accept.

"I am worried about social cohesion to the extent that many of our recent arrivals feel unwelcome, unwanted and unworthy," he said.

"I think some of our social tensions will only get worse unless we have a policy to make sure everyone invited to this country has a useful role to play."

A policy of simply bringing people in and giving them no role to play in the community and the city was a recipe for disaster, Mr Banks said.

He described suggestions of Balkanisation and racial strife as "a long bow" to draw.

Statistics New Zealand figures show that in the year to September, there were 14,600 permanent and long-term Chinese migrants to this country, 6500 Indians, 5900 from Britain, 3100 from South Africa, 2300 from Japan, 2200 from Fiji and 2000 from Korea.

Figures also show that in the decade to the 2001 Census, the number of Chinese people usually resident in this country more than doubled to around 104,500, and the number of Indians almost doubled to 61,803.

- NZPA

Further reading
Feature: Immigration