[ Note : there are, based on recent MBIE stats, 26,199 Filipino work visa holders or guest workers in New Zealand. no matter how many times Government extends their visas due to the pandemic, you have to admit that the less hope there is that residency will be considered, the greater the chances these guys will just head home. But there is little to look forward to. Any alternatives? Shoutout to Cely Calero and the FB group Pinoy Mums in New Zealand! thank you for the excellent work you do for Pinay mums! Salamat kay Vanessa Quinones Arce for the comment! ]
SI J.R. NG WELLINGTON, dumalaw sa kanyang mga magulang nung Feb 2020, naabutan ng lockdown at di na nakabalik sa New Zealand. Awa ng Diyos, andun pa sya sa Pinas at malapit nang maubos (expire) ang visa.
Si Roy ng Auckland, nakakakuha pa rin ng work visa taun taon, pero naabutan na sya ng maximum na edad para mag-apply ng permanent resident status. Sa oras na di na sya mapagbigyan ng WV, wala na syang option kundi umuwi kasama ng kanyang pamilya.
Si Leon ng South Island sinubukan na ang lahat ng trabaho, mashoot lang ang sweldo at pusisyon na hinihingi ng Skilled Migrant pathway. Twing akala nyang maaabot na ang inaasam na kumbinasyon para ma-invite na syang mag-apply, nagbabago ang ihip ng hangin at kailangan na namang mag-bago ng work o humingi ng dagdag na sweldo.
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Different cases, different situations, but with some common ground: all three kabayan in the above cases are running out of options staying in New Zealand. Despite their skills, despite New Zealand’s crying need to fill jobs and positions, and despite extensions to their temporary visas, JR, Roy and Leon are in real danger of going home after their visas expire.
one last thing shared by the three: they all thought they had a real, or at least a legitimate shot at being granted permanent resident status in the land of their dreams.
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Narrating their individual stories here would take too much time and space kabayan, our story today looks forward. Tanggapin na lang natin na naguho ang kanilang mga pangarap maging PR (permanent resident) sa bato-bato ng covid19, sa inefficiency ng ahensya ng gobyernong NZ, at sa dami ng gustong manirahan sa NZ ng permanente.
Consider the following facts :
(1) Government recently offered to cancel or refund application fees for as many as 20,000 work visa applications pending in Immigration NZ (the government agency tasked with processing these applications) since AND before the covid lockdown 16 months ago. This is an admission by government that it is unable for many reasons to even process these applications, much less approve them. Covid is one reason yes, but the number had been rising for the last three years now. Hindi na nila kaya, now or in the future, i-process mga applications. Let’s leave it at that.
(2) in almost every industry across the New Zealand economy, the country needs workers that cannot be supplied by the local population. A simpler way of saying this: for whatever reason, the labour supply is not meeting the labour demand. I’m not an economist, but when you don’t have enough scaffolders, carpenters, nurses, teachers, fruit-pickers, truck drivers, enough skilled workers to meet your needs, and you relax strict border restrictions just to admit applicants from overseas, then you don’t just have a labour problem, you have an economy problem.
(3) just looking at the failed (for now) trans-Tasman bubble between NZ and Australia, not to mention the big public health mess in the rest of the world (including unfortunately our Inang Bayan the Philippines), it is safe to assume that for at least the rest of 2021, New Zealand borders will be CLOSED (we don’t usually use ALLCAPS, but there it is) except for the usual: mercy flights, diplomats, post, etc. This means no commercial flights, no international tourism, and…
yes you guessed it kabayan, unless it’s a clear exception, no new additions to workforce from overseas.
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We’re not cherry-picking facts (or namimili ng facts) to support a conclusion. EVERYBODY’s been aware of these things as inevitable and unavoidable. We only use it to support a reset button solution.
When an electrical circuit is overheated or being used by too many appliances, a fuse blows and the circuit breaks. When you use your bathroom heater, hair dryer, extra light and fill up your power board, something has to give. What do you do?
You disconnect the excess appliances (you were using too much anyway), go to your fusebox, look for the fuse that tripped, and return it to the original position.
It’s not the correct technical term, but people like to use it: you “reset” the fuse: the lazy term is the “reset button.”
Simple but effective solution. And go easy on the hair dryer, please.
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THE RESET button isn’t the best solution for everyone. Some memory may be lost. Some pride may be hurt. Some convenience may be sacrificed. But a lot of good will be achieved.
As at least two opinion makers have strongly observed, it is unfair to bring people here on (work) visas with no hope of residency. it is so important that i’m requoting it here:
“How can you bring people here on visas and have
no hope of transitioning to residency?
In my view that is a crime, and it has created
criminal behaviour on a vast scale.”
it’s not the end of the journey, but the reset button will give every work visa holder here in limbo a little hope.
The reset button will ease the problem of supply and demand of labor. Note we didn’t say solve, but only ease. How? Simple. Tightening residency rules, as the Government has so obviously done the last three years, will force work visa holders (including of course like JR stranded overseas) to either go home or abandon working here. with the reset button, THEY WILL BE ABLE TO STAY HERE, hopefully indefinitely, and… dare we say it? permanently.
The reset button will solve the massive health dilemma of keeping New Zealand’s borders safe and secure for the forseeable future, for the commonsense reason that no one needs to go in and out for a while.
Many countries are forcing at least via public opinion New Zealand to sacrifice public health absolutes and open up the border, so as to open up the economy and not rely so much on throwing money around and laying massive public debt on future generations.
The truth is, naiinggit lang mga bansang yon sa New Zealand. New Zealand is the best place in the world to stay now, if you want to stay healthy and your life to be normal.
The reset button helps maintain that healthiness and normalcy.
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Call the reset button what you want. An amnesty law? A new law giving PR to all legal visa-holders in limbo?
Something drastic needs to be done, desperate yes, but better than nothing at all.
For thousands and thousands of our kabayan here, and many more.
Mabuhay tayong lahat!
