Green list for skilled migrants

The government has announced new immigration settings and the early opening of New Zealand’s border.

The measures aim to tackle the country’s immediate skill shortages and speed up the economic recovery from Covid-19.

The reforms include what the government describes as a “simplification” of immigration settings, and bringing forward the reopening of the country’s borders to all tourists and visa-holders two months earlier than planned to July 31.

“It will be welcome news for families, businesses and our migrant communities,” says Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. “This plan will increase the available pool of labour, while speeding up tourism recovery.

“This follows previous reconnecting work, which has seen approvals granted for more than 29,000 critical workers, 5,000 students, working holiday-makers, Australian tourists and visa-waiver visitors already able to enter the country.”

She adds rebalanced immigration settings will help businesses access key skills they need while ensuring wages and working conditions are improved for everyone.

“New Zealand cannot return to pre-pandemic trends that saw us overly reliant on growing numbers of lower-skilled workers and increased exploitation of migrants,” says Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi, pictured.

“Our plan is to grow skills at home. Over the past two years, over 190,000 New Zealanders have benefitted from government investment in trades training, including apprenticeships.”

On May 9, the government announced an extension to the Apprenticeship Boost scheme, which it says will see a further 38,000 New Zealanders supported into a trade.

“The cornerstone of our rebalance is the new green list,” says Faafoi. “This will incentivise and attract high-skilled migrants to New Zealand by providing a new streamlined pathway to residency for those globally hard-to-fill roles. 

“The list features 85 roles including construction engineering, trades, health workers and tech.

“Our rebalanced system will be simpler by reducing categories, bringing more online accessibility and streamlining application processes for businesses.

“Through the accredited employer work visa [AEWV], employers won’t need to provide as much information, can use their own recruitment processes to prove no New Zealanders are available for work and Immigration NZ will endeavour to have these visas processed within 30 days once an employer is accredited.

“We have worked closely with businesses on these reforms and understand that for some sectors it will take time to transition away from a reliance on cheap, migrant labour. 

“The government recognises that shift for some sectors is more challenging than others by establishing new sector agreements to assist with the transition. They will provide access for specified sectors to lower-paid migrant workers and all those employers can continue to hire working holidaymakers at any wage.

“Around 20,000 visa holders with visas expiring before 2023 are being granted either a six-month extension or a new two-year visa with open work conditions, so they and their employers won’t be affected by these changes.”

Tourism Minister Stuart Nash says the decision to bring the final border opening date forward allows New Zealand to fully reconnect to the world of international tourists and business travellers in time for the country’s traditional peak visitor season.

The full details of the government’s immigration rebalance, including changes to settings, can be found here.

Low-wage economy

Peter Wilson, principal economist with the NZIER, believes the government’s criteria is a step in the right direction in terms of shifting the economy towards a higher-skilled workforce and promoting higher productivity.

He says it shows responsiveness to the needs of certain sectors struggling after lockdowns and in need of fresh staffing. However, there is still uncertainty about how competitive New Zealand will appear on the global stage.

The government will temporarily exempt tourism and hospitality businesses from paying the $27.76 “job check” median wage to recruit migrants on an AEWV into most roles. Instead, a lower wage threshold of $25 per hour will be required until April next year. 

“[$27.76p/h is] certainly a move away from some of the current thresholds, which have been closer to minimum wage,” says Wilson. “But the median wage in New Zealand isn’t high, globally, so we’ve still got the issue of ‘will talent want to come and live here’.”

He adds it’s problematic to predict how the market will react, but the results of the policy will soon be evident in the monitoring of migrant flows.

“We’ll be able to monitor and see fairly quickly what sort of migrants are coming in and what sort of jobs they’re getting. Particularly, we’ll see employers reacting quite quickly and vocally if they can’t get people to fill positions.”

The green list

The government believes its green list will make it easier for employers to hire and attract migrants for specified high-skilled, hard-to-fill occupations with guaranteed residence pathways for those eligible.

This measure will be particularly welcomed by highly skilled workers not captured by the 2021 residence-visa criteria, including people on a specific purpose work visa who may have transferred into New Zealand before the pandemic.

This is used a lot for inter-company transfers or when sending somebody over for a particular project. 

For example, chief executives of international companies sent to New Zealand often stayed for three years under that visa, but have since fallen outside of the 2021 residence-visa category because of the type of visa held.

There is also concern that partners of working-visa holders will no longer be given open work visas, as they are currently, unless they earn over a certain threshold.

That change is likely to impact on the attractiveness of this country for migrants who want their partners to fully experience Kiwi life.