Asian workers to be targeted

NZ govt wants to target IT workers in India and China
Posted at 8:56am on 23 Feb 2007

The New Zealand Government has proposed a major shift in immigration policy to target skilled migrants in countries like India and China in a bid to address key labour shortages in areas like IT.

The proposed move is part of a major overhaul of immigration policy designed to ensure New Zealand competes with other OECD countries for skilled migrants.

Cabinet papers on the new policy say an increasing global demand for skilled workers will make New Zealand's current immigraton services unviable.

The government has allocated the Department of Labour an extra $2 million to start developing the policy changes. The aim is to have it completed in 18 months.

Pro-active policy necessary

Immigration Minister, David Cunliffe, says New Zealand is going to have to be more pro-active when recruting new immigrants if it's to survive the current skills shortage.

Mr Cunliffe told Morning Report officials will have to increase marketing around the world in areas like information technology.

Earlier he said what's needed is an immigration system that actively recruits skilled workers, rather than one that just waits for people to come here.

From here .

Police seek recruits from Hong Kong, Singapore and UK
5:00AM Saturday February 24, 2007
By Ruth Berry

An extra 200 police officers from the United Kingdom and a smaller number from Hong Kong and Singapore are to be recruited as local police struggle to meet new frontline targets.

Their recruitment advertising campaign is under review as are training rules to ensure recruits whose second language is English are not being set up to fail.

New Zealand First negotiated an extra 1250 police by 2009 in its confidence-and-supply agreement with Labour at the last election - 1000 of whom will be dedicated to "frontline" policing.

It means this country will be policed more heavily on a per head of population basis - but less heavily than several comparable countries.

Police human resources general manager Wayne Annan said sworn police officer numbers were up to more than 8000 - a milestone, with the induction of 72 new recruits this week.

More here .

What I'd like to know is where exactly are these shortages? There's not that many jobs in IT being advertised, and the ones that are offer pretty meagre pay, considering there's such a 'shortage'.

More Police, now thats good. As long, of course, that they dont all end up on traffic duty, and we have 1200 extra revenue collectors ;D

** slightly off topic **
Motorists beware... we spotted someone being pulled over by an unmarked ute! Just your average 4x4 effort, looked like any other builders ute. Sneaky blighters!
** back on topic **

While they're at it, more doctors and nurses too! We'll have a crime free country and excellent heath.

Skilled or De-Skilled?

I remember when Contracter's were in limited demand 2001-02 ish (dot done days) but the UK government was still allowing migrants from India et al to enter because the policy no longer met the business requirement.

Some of the smarter Bank's, Insurance and "Off Shore" Call Centre's are being recalled as being able to speak English doesn't constitute understanding English. Consumer power?

Most of us have tried to speak to our Bank or Credit Card companies etc at a certain time of the day (Time Zone) and spend an extra 15-20 minutes extra on the phone before resolving the problem or just hunging up.

The fluent English speaking VISA requirements will of course prevent any de-skilling?

One of my Employer's system's vendors has pulled the service back from Asia to local resources due the requirement's of mission critical services.

As they say "You get what you pay for"

A generalization I'm afraid as quite a few of the migrants from that region I work with are very much switched on.