A candle light vigil in Auckland s Aotea Square protested the treatment migrant workers are receiving.
Thousands of people live in Aotearoa illegally, surviving in a shadow world of cash jobs, without benefits or healthcare. In part three of a series going inside the world of overstayers, National Correspondent Steve Kilgallon examines the argument for an amnesty. “If you are by the sea,” says Wang , a Chinese builder who has overstayed his visa and is living illegally in New Zealand, “you can step back if the tides are rising. But now it’s like someone is standing behind with a gun pointed to you, do you dare to step back?”
New Zealand’s approach to migration has helped create a low-wage, low-productivity and low-wellbeing society for most. Bernard Hickey looks at why a quadrupling of temporary work visas in 15 years caused such grief, and how these visa rules should be changed to make everyone better off.
In the latest episode of When the Facts Change, Bernard Hickey talks to economist Julie Fry and Anu Kaloti from the Migrant Workers’ Association about how New Zealand is failing to live up to its image as a kind country when it comes to temporary migration. Subscribe and listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite podcast provider.