Some Migration Curbs

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31621, 6 March 1968, Page 28

Some Migration Curbs

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, Mar. 5. The Minister of Labour (Mr Shand) said today that although it was true that admission to New Zealand did not give a migrant the automatic right to bring in any of his relatives later, a substantial part of immigration to New Zealand did stem from family sponsorship.

Mr Shand was commenting on recent remarks by a Wellington City Councillor, Mr G. J. O’Brien, made at a naturalisation ceremony, that it was easier for some people to get through the iron curtain than it was to enter New Zealand through the “fern curtain.” The Minister said it was most unfortunate that Mr O'Brien should select, as an audience on which to “ventilate his somewhat extravagant criticism,” a group of people on whom New Zealand citizenship had just been conferred. He said the eligibility of migrants was considered at the time they made their application. “Mr O’Brien was more than misleading, however, when he stated that once a migrant left his own country and settled in New Zealand he had no prospects of being able to bring any members of his family here,” he said. “As a substantial proportion of our immigration stems from family sponsorship, nothing was further from the truth. Some countries, both in Europe and elsewhere, are traditionally countries of large-scale emigration and New Zealand has found it necessary to place some limits on the rate at which people are admitted from these countries.

“This is done by admitting only those within definite degrees of relationship for nationals already permanently

resident in New Zealand, but outside this relationship we always consider applications carefully if some special humanitarian consideration is claimed,” he said. The Minister said that because of the high proportion of older people in the population, and the specially favourable treatment of the elderly, New Zealand had a continuing problem of providing adequate medical, housing and welfare facilities for the elderly. “For this reason, successive Governments over the years have found it necessary to limit the number of elderly people entering this country. “If the children of elderly parents are all residing in this country or if the children here are the only ones who can accept any responsibility for their parents, then application for admission receives very sympathetic consideration.” Mr Shand said that Mr O’Brien’s statement that New Zealands’ immigration policy discriminated against Jews was “grossly inaccurate.” He emphasised that there was no aspect of the policy which singled out the Jewish people. Applicants were not required to declare their religious beliefs or faiths, but if a Jewish applicant disclosed his faith, his application would still be determined according to his nationality.