by Iain Macleod
10. June 2009 21:00
I always like to give any new Minister time to get to grips with their portfolio and none less so than the Immigration one as it is a complex legal area and fraught with emotion given every decision impacts on the life of an individual or family. It is extremely frustrating then that eight months into this Government that the current Minister Hon Jonathan Coleman appears to publicly display a tenuous grip on policy. In recent weeks the NZ Herald has run a number of stories bringing to the public's attention the plight of pregnant women who are being told they cannot get new temporary permits e.g. visitor/student or work because they are pregnant.
As recently as this week the New Zealand Immigration Minister has come out and castigated his Department for 'poor decision making' in not 'extending' a Lithuanian visitor a further temporary permit because she has been told by her Doctor that to fly might endanger the life of her unborn child. If the Minister either read his policy or sought advice on it he would realise that under current policy there are only two circumstances under which a pregnant woman can obtain an extension or new temporary permit - if she is in a recognised relationship with a New Zealand (permanent) resident or citizen or the spouse/partner of someone on a talent permit. Under no other circumstances does policy allow any additional stay over and above the time granted on arrival in the country. The policy is not grey - it is black and white.
We recently had a client who needed a further temporary permit that the Government had invited to apply for permanent residence as a skilled migrant. Her temporary permit was about to expire. When she went for her permanent residence medical it was discovered she was four weeks pregnant. Under policy she is therefore not entitled to any further permits and that makes the Government look exeedingly stupid and heartless (her partner has a skilled job which sees the family qualify for residence) but if the family has to leave because she is in the early stages of pregnancy the job offer he has will be lost and NZ will not get the skilled migrant that it seeks. This Minister would be better served by thinking through whether this policy needs to be modified (or scrapped). Like most immigration policy there are unintended consequences. The change to health criteria barring pregnant women from remaining in New Zealand was poorly thought through and is one headache I would have thought any Immigration Minister would have rather avoided. Coleman can do something about it but until he understands the policy, it's implementation and it's consequences he is not going to be able to act in the best interests of either New Zealand, his Department or the pregnant migrant and her unborn child.
The risks of scrapping the policy are low. There is no advtanage in anyone coming to New Zealand when pregnant and having the baby here as the child no longer gains citizenship or permanent residence by virtue of being born here. How many people do you kow would travel all this way, leave behind their friends and family, social and medical support systems to have a baby anyway? So women falling pregnant is almost certainly a consequence of the human condition and not a scam to rort 'free' maternity care. How paranoid can we get?
Minister Coleman needs to quietly dump the policy as a matter of urgency (not to mention decency).
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