malayang mangarap (daring to hope)

WHERE WERE YOU Precious Reader when historical events unfolded?

We would’ve wanted to be closer to the action, but because of the half-million to one million spontaneously assembled, we were near the corner of EDSA and Ortigas Ave when the Marcos family and their cronies fled the country, the climax of the EDSA Revolution of 1986. We were doing a short run around the subdivision / village when 9/11 exploded across the world stage, never to be matched in impact and violence to this day.

And six days ago on a bright 5am morning, we were doing a morning shift when we received an urgent message from a friend in Auckland, a friend of the Pinoy community and personally affected by the news. He had known since the night past, but couldn’t spill the beans because of a media embargo (he’s a member of the press). He updated his publication’s website very early that day, but reproduced the government’s Immigration NZ’s announcement:

“the Government announced a new one-off residence visa pathway for some temporary work visa holders currently in New Zealand. Some critical purpose visa holders arriving in New Zealand between 30 September 2021 and 31 July 2022 on long-term visas may also be eligible for this new visa. Partners and dependents can be included as part of these residence applications.“

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The implications were stunning, no exaggeration. 165,000 temporary work visa holders, and many more who’d previously applied, had been in limbo the last three years and prepared to go home due to the disappearance of hope becoming permanent residents of New Zealand. Indeed, for all the covid19 success earned by this country’s “team of 5 million,” New Zealand had been deemed “a miserable place to be in if you’re a migrant.”

Thursday’s announcement changed all that.

Just before the announcement, work visa holders were in the depths of despair and disappointment, mourning the day they decided to uproot families for the hope of a better life in New Zealand.

A bad decision to downsize Immigration New Zealand staff, the pandemic, and freezing residency applications for more than two years combined for a perfect storm of suspending the lives of nearly the entire migrant community in New Zealand, comprising anywhere between 2.5% to 5% of the entire country’s population.

Beyond this, many felt there was a serious disconnect between the realities of what the country’s needed and what migrants were able to provide.

Weren’t the migrant doctors nurses and allied and healthcare workers eternally on the frontline in the battle against the Virus? Weren’t our migrant builders ready and willing during the Christchurch and Kaikoura rebuilds and even during the real estate boom all over New Zealand?

And weren’t our schools and business crying for teachers and professionals even while New Zealand could only look on while the brain drain to UK, Australia and Canada took place?

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Even in all the midst of despair and hopelessness, our migrants held fast and held on to the tiny bit of hope that things would turn around and the dealer couldn’t always give them a bad hand.

A perfect blackjack was waiting just around the corner, and it came last Thursday.

The threshold or most basic condition was and is, you had to be in New Zealand. Next, you had to be here for the last three years. Lastly, you had to have a valid work visa in any of the pathways, and earning at least $27 an hour.

Anything over that is just icing on the cake.

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it might not be a fair comparison, but nearly a thousand Jews and their future families were saved by Oskar Schindler from certain death during the Second World War.

It isn’t death that more than 165,000 families are being saved from, but given the global pickle we’re now all in, to the Labour Government and leader Jacinda Ardern, they are eternally grateful.

It was a long time coming, but finally we can dare to hope.

Thanks for reading!