|
|
|
|
|
NEARLY
3,000 PACIFIC PEOPLE GIVEN NEW ZEALAND RESIDENCE |
|
Media Release - Immigration New Zealand |
|
| |
Pacific people
given residence in New Zealand under the Samoan Quota (SQ) and Pacific
Access Category (PAC) policies are a welcome addition to New Zealand’s
workforce and community, according to Department of Labour Deputy
Secretary, Workforce, Mary Anne Thompson.
She said the SQ and PAC, under which nearly 3,000 Pacific people were
approved for residence in 2004/05, were an expression of New Zealand’s
close relationship with Samoa and the PAC island nations of Fiji,
Kiribati, Tonga and Tuvalu.
Ms Thompson announced that, from preliminary data for 2004/05, 1,482
people were granted residence under the SQ policy – 1,091 under the
2004 and previous years’ quotas, and 391 under the SQ “residual places”
policy, introduced in November 2004 to make unfilled places available
to Samoan citizens in New Zealand on valid temporary permits.
Applications from up to a further 270 people selected in the ballots
are still being processed.
She also announced that 1,491 people had been granted residence under
the PAC – 854 under the 2004 and previous years’ quotas, and 637 under
the PAC residual places policy, which also made unfilled places
available from November 2004 for citizens of PAC countries in New
Zealand on valid temporary permits. A further 717 PAC applications are
still being processed.
The two quotas are government immigration policies that give Pacific
people with a genuine job offer at or above a specified minimum pay
level the opportunity to obtain permanent residence in New Zealand.
Each year people are invited to register for the quotas, and those
chosen in a random ballot are invited to apply for residence if they
can obtain a satisfactory job offer here.
The SQ, which began in 1970, is based on the spirit of close friendship
embodied in the 1962 Treaty of Friendship between New Zealand and
Samoa, and provides an opportunity for 1,100 Samoan citizens to gain
permanent residence in New Zealand each year.
The PAC began in 2002 and provides a similar avenue for a total of 650
citizens from these countries - all of which have close cultural and
historic ties with New Zealand – to be granted New Zealand residence.
Under the PAC there are 250 places each for Fiji and Tonga, and 75
places each for Kiribati and Tuvalu. |
|
 |
|
|
Fijian-born All Black Sitiveni Sivivatu has been approved NZ
permanent residency under the Pacific Access Category (PAC);
pictured with Mary Anne Thompson (DOL).
(Photo: courtesy of Department of Labour)
|
 |
|
On a soapbox for children's rights: 11-year-old Luke Lolesi, of
Kihikihi, near Te Awamutu, with Every Child Counts supporter and
MP for Mangere, Taito Phillip Field.
(Photo: Every Child Counts)
|
 |
|
Graduates of the Auckland University of Technology, on AUT
Autumn Graduation 2005 night.
(Photo: Ruci Farrell) |
| |
Ms Thompson said that the residual places policies had been
introduced because, while the number of people registering for quota
places offshore in 2002 and 2003 had been expected to result in
sufficient numbers of people being selected to fill the annual
quotas, many of the places for those two years were subsequently not
taken up.
Various factors are likely to have contributed to the failure to
fill ballot places in previous years. Some people selected in the
ballot decided not to proceed with their application for residence,
others failed to meet immigration health requirements, and some
simply could not obtain an acceptable offer of a genuine, permanent,
full-time and sustainable job.
“Following discussions with heads of Pacific Island governments in
March 2004, the Government asked the Department to review the
schemes’ operation and implement measures to help ensure all
available places – including those unfilled in the previous two
years – were taken up in 2005 and future years.”
Ms Thompson said the high demand for places in 2004/05, and the
number of applications approved under the SQ ballot and residual
places policies this year, were encouraging signs that the SQ would
be fully subscribed in 2005/06 and future years.
She was similarly optimistic that the PAC quotas for Tonga and Fiji
would be fully subscribed in 2005/06 and beyond, although she said
further efforts might be needed to help citizens of Tuvalu and
Kiribati meet the requirements to fill the full complement of
balloted and residual places for their countries.
Ms Thompson said the high uptake of places under both the SQ and PAC
quotas in the year ended June 2005 was made possible largely by
immigration policy changes implemented in 2004/05, and promoted by
the Department in SQ and PAC nations and in New Zealand’s Pacific
communities. The changes were:
• the minimum income requirement for people with dependent children
had been lowered, and the incomes of both parents could now be
counted towards meeting the minimum income level where both had
secured acceptable job offers;
• the period of time successful quota applicants were given to
obtain a job offer had been doubled, from three to six months;
• citizens of Samoa and PAC countries already lawfully in New
Zealand on temporary permits were permitted to apply for residence
in New Zealand if selected in the quota ballots. Previously, they
had to return to their home country to make an application for
residence if selected in the quota ballot;
• citizens of Samoa and PAC countries lawfully in New Zealand on
temporary permits were invited to apply, on a first come, first
served basis for “residual places” unfilled in the current or
previous years.
As well, she said, the Department had developed partnerships with
employers to assist successful quota applicants to find jobs in New
Zealand in areas of skills shortage such as horticulture, bus
driving, meat processing, caregiving and roadwork.
“All these initiatives appear to have been most effective in
addressing the low uptake of recent years, to the extent that we
have now filled a significant number of previously unfilled quota
places,” Ms Thompson said.
Applications for the 2005/06 PAC and SQ quotas opened on 4 July and
close on 12 August.
|
|
| |
Copyright Event Polynesia Ltd.
|
|
|
|
|
