Immigrant MPs dicey under law

By AUDREY YOUNG political editor

Some of New Zealand's immigrant MPs may not have been accepted if new entry rules had applied at the time they applied.

But others would have been a dead certainty under the new system.

The old points system and automatic passmark has been replaced by an invitation-based system that will fast track people with a full-time job offer relevant to their qualifications.

Nandor Tanczos, Peter Brown and Ashraf Choudhary would succeed. But Dail Jones, Pansy Wong and Tim Barnett's cases might be questionable.

Mr Tanczos, a Green list MP, was 7 when his parents emigrated from Britain in the mid-70s but he reckons his Hungarian-born father would have made the grade because he had a full-time job offer.

His father worked as a refrigeration engineer at various freezing works.

Mr Choudhary, a Labour list MP who is Pakistani-born of Indian heritage, arrived in 1976 on a Massey University research fellowship. After a PhD he went on to become an associate professor of agriculture.

These days, he would have arrived on a study visa and, with an offer of a lecture post, almost certainly have been invited to apply for permanent residency.

Mr Brown, the NZ First deputy leader, had a job offer as an officer in the merchant navy, with the Union Steamship company of New Zealand, when he arrived in 1964.

NZ First MP Dail Jones says New Zealand operated a "white New Zealand" immigration policy when he arrived in 1960. And he doubts whether his mother would have measured up to the new system.

He was born in Pakistan to caucasian parents with British and United States Army backgrounds. He arrived as a 15-year-old in 1960 with his mother, a solo mother by then, and will never forget the immigration officer's question after they stepped off the Wanganella. Pointing to the young Dail, he had asked his mother: "Is there any dark blood in him?"

His mother, a stenographer, did not have a job offer, but after arriving on the Thursday had secured a job by Monday.

Christchurch Central Labour MP Tim Barnett may not necessarily have gained permanent residency had the new skilled migrant rules applied earlier.

Mr Barnett arrived from Britain in December 1991 as a visitor and worked in various jobs in the voluntary sector.

He arrived partnering his vicar boyfriend, who had a full-time job in New Zealand, but the immigration rules on same-sex partners when both partners were immigrants was not clear. These days, if his partner had gained residency, he would too.

Mr Barnett was granted residency in 1992. He did not have a full-time job but with an economics degree he easily cleared the points hurdle.

National list MP Pansy Wong arrived from Hong Kong in 1974 under the family reunification category, which does not hinge on skills or jobs. She studied at Canterbury University and worked as an accountant and company director.

But she feels certain that if she were a young 19-year-old in Hong Kong today, she would not have applied to come to New Zealand under the skilled migrant category.

She said she would have had no certainty that she was going to be treated fairly in a transparent process.