Samoan immigrant numbers falling

Press, 10 November 1983, Page 10

Samoan immigrant numbers falling

' PA ' Wellington Samoan immigration had declined in the last two years partly because of a • lack of work, the Minister of Immigration, Mr Malcolm, has told Parliament. Mr Malcolm detailed figures which showed that the number of Western Samoans permanently moving to New Zealand had fallen below the quota in the last two years. • The quota is 1100, but the totals of immigrants for the last two years were 867 and 748. The tightening job market was one of the reasons why the figures showed a decline, Mr Malcolm said. A job guarantee had to be secured before a person came to New Zealand per-

manently from Samoa. He was answering questions by Mr T. de V. Hunt (Nat, Pakuranga), who asked if Samoan immigrants had taken jobs away from New Zealanders. Mr Hunt said the immigrants were largely unskilled, and there was a big number of unskilled New Zealanders out of work. Mr Malcolm said he did not believe the immigration policy had a big impact on employment He said that the figures given were the total number of people under the scheme and might include spouses and dependent children.

“So one cannot take the number of people involved and assure it equates with a number of jobs.” he said.