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New Zealand property buyers’ residence status at risk? - 6 July 2009

A group set up to help British expats at risk of being forced away from their new homes in New Zealand has accused the government there of effectively pushing out skilled workers who were invited to the country. The Move2NZ group has anger authorities by issuing a pamphlet saying the government’s attitude has been one of 'We've taken your money, used your skills, now b****r off!'

Mike Bell, of the Move2NZ group, said: 'We are seeing families who have worked here years being effectively kicked out in two weeks.’ The group says that it believes the government is pushing a ‘jobs for Kiwis’ agenda in the wake of thousands of native New Zealanders returning to the islands having lost their own jobs overseas.

In 2008, some 20,000 Brits are said to have moved for working visas, buying property in New Zealand in the process, with the promise of being able to apply for residency within two years. Now, it seems that the government is making a major shift in its policy of inviting foreign workers to fill the gaps for skilled employees in specific professions.

Those foreigners on temporary visas are threatened with having to leave the country, sometimes within two weeks. According to Mr. Bell, many of these expats have offers of future work in their sectors or are skilled in the trades which the New Zealand immigration department lists as having a severe shortage at the present time. He said that skilled foreigners who were invited to fill positions in New Zealand in these specific professions add more than £3billion to the economy each year, but that the government is seeking to cut off this revenue stream to the economy and get rid of workers in the areas where employers desperately need them.

The Daily Mail cites one example of the father of two children being told that his family would have to leave the country after he was made redundant from his position as an aluminium joiner. Despite being offered another post almost straight away, the man’s prospective new employers were told that he would be unlikely to get another work permit. This left the family forced to move from their Christchurch home and seek more work while eating into their savings.

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