by Iain Macleod
17. July 2009 00:43
I have somehow been subscribed to one of these immigration chat group/forum things which I have come to loathe. I have tried to unsubscribe but can’t (that is another story) and for the sake of my mental health have told the computer to treat them as junk. For some reason this week I have received a whole lot more. This particular one allows ex-pat South Africans to give freely of their migration experience and dish out advice. While the world wide web has opened up new channels for communication and access to knowledge in ways we could only dream about as recently as a decade ago I am troubled by much of the advice given because it is wrong. Way wrong. And in this game inaccurate advice robs potential migrants of futures in this country.
For example this week someone who is coming to live here asked a simple question about who is entitled to what in terms of access to public health cover in New Zealand. A pretty common question that we get all the time in our business. I read six different pieces of advice from “until you have permanent residence you are not covered” to “if you have a work permit you are covered”, to “everyone who is legal in New Zealand is covered”. All were wrong yet somewhere on the other side of the planet was a person possibly relying on this advice. One hopes that the person who asked the question was smart enough to work out that six different answers from six different people was enough to convince him he should find a more credible source of advice!
But on it goes. Someone else asked a few days ago if they should come to New Zealand without a job and try and find one when here (they needed the points to get their permanent residence only through having the job). The floodgates opened. Many said that South Africans were being ‘deported’ because they had lost their jobs, others said that there is a ‘kiwis first’ attitude (as if that was something new), that ‘no one is getting jobs here’, that ‘you should wait till the recession is over’. That is in the same week as Immagine New Zealand got a fabricator/welder from the Philippines a work permit, a South African security guard (minimum wage and unskilled) a work permit in that role and an ex-South African share trader a work permit as a farm worker/shepherd in the South Island despite never having worked on a farm in his life. All had come over in the last few months during the recession and found work. I have heard stories and read newspaper reports of migrants in all three of these occupations being denied work permits, extensions to work permits and being asked to leave New Zealand in recent times because there are enough locals to fill these sorts of positions. Yet those that relied on our advice are here with futures. I know there are fabricator/welders, security guards and even farm workers who have not had work permits renewed by the Immigration Department because it was believed that New Zealanders 'should be able to fill the position'. That doesn't mean it is not possible howwever with the right advice and guidance!
The reality is almost all our clients who have needed jobs to file work and residence permits have got them having burned their bridges at home in recent months and flown here during the worst recession for fifty years. How can this be when others are filling the online pages of these chat groups with tales of woe and disaster? It lies in the quality of the advice that the migrant is in possession of and with Immagine New Zealand what they get is bankable.
These chats groups and forums are in my view dangerous on so many levels (yet potentially very valuable). Dangerous because participants overwhelmingly take their own personal experience and what happened to them and assume the same will happen to everyone else. And those looking for free advice are willing consumers.
Time after time I have seen someone ask a question, get completely wrong advice but post a “big thanks” in response. And a shiver goes down my spine.
I used to try and offer professional advice to users of this particular group but gave up. I reaslised that people that use these forums are generally not after professional advice as that may come with an invoice attached. What they get is what they are paying for. Low quality advice at the cheapest possible price. When it comes to matters of fact rather than opinion I wish the members of these groups would understand that they often don’t know as much as they think they know about New Zealand immigration policy and procedures and what happened to them or their family may not happen to everyone else.
There is no accountability or responsibility that comes with providing this advice. Clearly it is well intentioned but I know that would be migrants often rely on it.
I shudder at the thought that people rely on these forums to plan their futures.
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