Prime Minister Bill English has made a big call in limiting the number of migrant workers allowed entry to New Zealand.
The increasing public pressure that ultimately forced our PM to make these restrictions can be summarised in a few brilliantly insightful, tremendously inspired – mildly ignorant but – classically Kiwi phrases: ‘Bloody immigrants, stealing all the jobs…’, ‘Bloody immigrants, they’re a menace on our roads…’, ‘Bloody immigrants, can’t understand a bloody word half of them say’; or the 21st century addition, ‘Bloody immigration, that’s the reason why house prices are so bloody high, swhy a typical Kiwi bloke like me can’t get me and the missus and her six kids and two dogs into a home, and it shouldn’t matter that me or the missus can’t work cos we’re bofe on disability cos we’re recovering mef addicts or that we ended up trashing our last house the tight-arse Gov’ent gave us then blowing it up as well cos nah, we got as much right to get into our own home as the next family cos this is New Zealand, everyone deserves their own home eh’.
The main issue with our Prime Minister’s decision to lower the number of immigrants permitted to work in New Zealand is that many of the nation’s best workers in fact are migrant workers; to say that those ‘immigrants are stealing Kiwi jobs’ is an entirely ignorant statement and is at the very best a partial truth…
Rather than worrying about cutting back on immigration the New Zealand Government might be better positioned focusing on the aspect of dealing with/culling out the number of born-and-bred Kiwi folk who really provide nothing for, but who are more than happy to take from, their country; a fine example of whom are the number of ‘homeless’ Auckland people/families who – on account of the shortage/expense of homes in the area coupled with an ostensible shortage of brainpower/financial nous suffered by these same folk in the same area also the inability to take responsibility for or indeed to plan/organise/manage/sort out/show some Goddamn foresight in their own lives – have been stuffed into motels at over $150 per night (well over $1000 per week) at the Government’s/taxpayers’ expense then as though their wellbeing is everybody else’s responsibility and is in no way their own, the majority of these people are still complaining that they’ve ‘been forgotten by the system’ or, more confounding still, are ‘not being looked after’.
…The majority of immigrants attempting to make a home in New Zealand seem content to occupy the positions of employment that, so often, our so called ‘typical Kiwis’ either lack the ability, the dedication or simply the desire to fill…
A reprobate group of Northland teens were recently filmed attempting to kick in the glass door of a liquor store; these thugs were later filmed giving supposed insight into their actions, claiming: “Oh we gotta do it eh, cos there’s no other way to get stuff round ‘ere … Cos there’s no jobs out there eh … Oh yeah like none of us got jobs eh, cos there’s no jobs … So come on Government, create some more jobs and we won’t do the crime eh…”
…The owner of a Northland trucking firm, Stan Semenoff Transport, recently appeared on the News, albeit dejectedly, maintaining that on account of recent migrant restrictions he was suffering a shortage in workers meaning that almost a quarter of his trucks were sitting, driverless, in his yard; Northland fruit pickers have also been in demand this year as it appears the leisurely task of picking fruit for little more than the minimum wage, but significantly more than the dole, is a job that most out-of-work Kiwis feel is beneath them…
These new migration restrictions have seen the implementation of a ‘projected income to duration of visa ratio’, meaning that the greater the wage an immigrant is forecast to earn, or indeed the higher the skill level they currently possess, the longer their New Zealand working visa may extend.
…A truck driver’s wage isn’t terribly impressive and nor are the formal qualifications required to fill that position; these factors disqualify most truck driving migrants from long-term working visas as heavy haul drivers, yet as Mr Semenoff explained, “…while the jobs are definitely there, it does take a special sort of person to handle a big rig…”…
Prime Minister Bill English once in the past found himself in an uncomfortable situation as he – as then Deputy PM – was quoted making the remark: “A lot of young Kiwis who are available for work are pretty damn hopeless.” – this comment was inspired by the revelation that many youthful New Zealand jobseekers were finding it difficult to pass a company’s standard drugs test then of those who did, many of them lacked the dedication to turn up on time – if at all – for their first day on the job.
…Among New Zealand dairy farms Filipinos make up a large portion of the workforce and are by all accounts superb workers; Chinese and Japanese immigrants oversee a large portion of New Zealand’s takeaway outlets while Indian folk operate the majority of New Zealand dairies then are still somehow free to drive many of our taxis, yet still there are vacancies in New Zealand’s employment market…
In order to hold down employment a person must want to do so – it is so very easy for an out-of-work youth to claim ‘there are no jobs’ or ‘migrants are taking all the jobs’ simply because these are the fashionable statements among today’s jobless yet – if somebody genuinely wants to work they will.
…As a stoic National supporter it pains me to see the Government doing something so patently short-sighted and worse still, so clearly pandering to the nation’s alarmingly high percentage of malcontents; that said if the ‘malcontents’ are indeed comprising the majority (as one would be forgiven for believing they do in New Zealand), what with election season approaching…
From construction labourers to farm workers, from supermarket workers to fast-food vendors, there has never been and likely there never will be a shortage of rudimentary employment possibilities in New Zealand.
…Migrant workers have for generations been filling the gaps in New Zealand’s job market generally left vacant by those positions that our beloved ‘typical Kiwis’ simply, don’t want to do.
This country needs migrants for without them our nation of malcontents, rather than languishing on a Government-funded lifestyle while complaining about the trans-Tasman wage-gap, might be forced to work jobs they feel are beneath them thus would soon become a whole lot more mal-contented.
Article by Tim Walker
Edited by Minnie Mom-Wage
Photography by Mel Can-Tent