Dialogue: Move to oust migrants is economic stupidity

PAUL JANMAN* says the Government's immigration crackdown is a curious development in a country suffering from low growth.

How times have changed in the brave new world of free trade and global economics. The criterion for a settler's right to enter New Zealand used to be the possession of two feet with which to walk on to a ship. Across the Tasman, it was the qualified criminal who got the free ticket south.

Ironically, immigrants today are threatened by a new kind of criminality that qualifies them for instant arrest and deportation.

Take a moment to consider the flight from social inequality and overpopulation of both the Maori and Pakeha to the South Pacific. The plight of many modern immigrants is not incomparable.

Many are desperate enough to risk everything on tourist or refugee visas before spending thousands of dollars on the kind of unreliable immigration consultants who promise the Earth and deliver the bill before the goods are produced.

Poor education, fear and ignorance of legal rights and immigration status persuade many to take the direct route to illegality with false documentation and creative scams. Any means necessary are used in the struggle to overcome the desperate material inequalities between their countries and ours. But who has the right to call these people illegal?

It is easy to overlook the great risks and sacrifices that overstayers take in getting as far as they do from the dead-end urban hells and impoverished provinces of the global system.

Locked into dependency by global economic institutions that we all (often ignorantly) condone, it is no surprise that the world's neglected populations have increasingly turned to illegal means in search of a better livelihood. Shouldn't we at least sympathise with the plight of those who have actually opened the gate and made a new life in New Zealand?

By humane rather than abstract bureaucratic standards, their efforts in getting here warrant recognition if not congratulations.

Yet the voices of economic migrants, our hidden refugees, are now being stifled by the noise of the latest legal-speak on eligibility and legitimacy.

Last week, Rosanna Mila didn't fit the description. She is South-east Asian, with broken English; her husband is a factory worker. The family were on the plane home before officials could retrieve their file and reverse their decision. The crackdown must surely be an urgent operation.

The Minister of Immigration, Lianne Dalziel, shamelessly deflected responsibility for the deportation blunder and was all too quick to condemn the garment factory that employed Mr Mila for breaking the law. Of course, he did not have a work permit, but how could he possibly get one without approved qualifications?

The ease with which Lianne Dalziel executes her bureaucratic judgment will only perpetuate the system of informal economy that sustains poor immigrant life under insurmountable pressure.

Informality in construction and factory work, for example, offers unskilled immigrants sanctuary from a system which discriminates against foreigners with higher tax rates, endless permit and licence requirements and the fear of legal reprisals that preclude openness among the community networks of frightened minorities.

The informal activities of recent migrants from South America, South-east Asia, China or the Pacific Islands will be pushed further underground by the immigration reforms that came into effect on October 1.

Furthermore, why do we treat immigrants and informal workers as parasites when sophisticated studies in American cities have shown that the informal economy promotes growth rather than hinders it? The answer lies in the threat that informality poses to the rationality of control.

Unfortunately, the global backlash against illegal immigrants is mirrored by the economic activities of wealthy nations which, under the guise of developing the Third World, continue to plunder it.

These double standards are reflected in immigration laws, which treat objective truth with the same contempt as a clumsy Philippine guest-worker who breaks the dishes while washing them.

Subtle are the forms through which racist undercurrents in our culture are revealed. Helen Clark alluded to this issue with her comments on the Waitara shooting incident. It is a shame that the members of her cabinet responsible for the immigration crackdown do not have the humility or good sense to follow suit.

Meanwhile, we are in angst over the brain drain of New Zealanders seeking higher-paying jobs in yet more prosperous countries, as the youth of our affluent middle classes continue to head off on their big OE.

While we might lament this migration, no one would question its legality. Yet, as the dollar hits its lowest low, the Government makes scapegoats of our Third World immigrants.

From a sincerely ethical perspective, it is obvious that there are no illegal immigrants, only the unethical abuse of power over the most vulnerable.

While we welcome yet more technical experts and wealthy students from Asia, our underprivileged foreign residents are threatened and harassed.

Lianne Dalziel's denials add insult to injury rather than offering a critical rethink of immigration policy and its just execution - an attitude typical of the world's political boardrooms, where law is now seldom more than a form of economic policy anyway.

If the official steamroller cannot be reversed overnight, at least an apology to Mrs Mila from the upper echelons would help to ease the resentment and fear of our recent immigrants.

* Paul Janman is a graduate anthropology student at the University of Auckland.