{"id":3962,"date":"2020-09-17T03:44:04","date_gmt":"2020-09-17T03:44:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/?p=3962"},"modified":"2020-09-17T03:44:04","modified_gmt":"2020-09-17T03:44:04","slug":"the-immigration-toss-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/2020\/09\/17\/the-immigration-toss-up\/","title":{"rendered":"The immigration toss-up"},"content":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/www.newsroom.co.nz\/news\/a-humanity-vs-industry-immigration-toss-up<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

New Zealand faces criticism over its changing immigration laws in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. A crackdown on immigration in an attempt to prevent the spread of the novel Coronavirus has created unintended consequences for the country’s migrant workers, leaving many without a way to re-enter the country for work. With limited capacity to quarantine those entering the country, and much of that space being allocated to New Zealand citizens returning from travel, politicians disagree on which immigrant groups should be given priority. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gloriz Ghahraman of the Green Party argues that refugees with humanitarian need should be considered most urgent. Alternatively, industry leaders continue to assert that allowing temporary migrant workers to return should be the country’s first goal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To combat a lack of workers that plagued a variety of industries, the definition of a “critical” worker has been expanded. Previously, a critical worker meant that one’s skill set was “not obtainable” in New Zealand. This has been changed to “not readily available”, allowing more temporary migrant workers to return to their jobs, and subsequently, their lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This definition of critical worker can be applied to understand immigration law as a whole. To immigrate to a developed country such as New Zealand, one must first demonstrate that they 1) will not place a financial burden on the country and its tax-paying citizens or 2) offer a service or skill that cannot be performed by an existing citizen. Of course, this is not taking into account asylum seeking refugees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worker mobility has become a new normal in the age of globalization. However, it’s becoming clear that relatively open borders have been taken for granted as countries face problems stemming from worker mobility suddenly being frozen by the pandemic. Immigration law is complicated, ambiguous, and rarely agreed upon. The current immigration debate in New Zealand is simply one of hundreds occuring around the world. The question of economic vs humanitarian need seems to define policy action, and the hope for a succinct solution seems to dwindle as repetitive and cyclical arguments drag on. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/www.newsroom.co.nz\/news\/a-humanity-vs-industry-immigration-toss-up New Zealand faces criticism over its changing immigration laws in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. A crackdown on immigration in an attempt to prevent the spread of the novel Coronavirus has created unintended consequences for the country’s migrant workers, leaving many without a way to re-enter the country for work. With limited capacity to quarantine those entering the country,… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":159,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[172,168,169,173,170],"class_list":["post-3962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-analysis","tag-coronavirus","tag-immigration","tag-new-zealand","tag-oceania","tag-pandemic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/159"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3962"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3970,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3962\/revisions\/3970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}