Venkat Raman
Auckland, February 15, 2023
The Twelfth Annual Indian Newslink Lecture 2022 will be held at JW Marriott Hotel (formerly Stamford Plaza Auckland) on Monday, February 27, 2023. We are grateful to the management of Pullman Hotel who did their best to see if the flood-damaged venue booked earlier could be readied for the Lecture.
This is the first New Zealand operation of JW Marriott, one of the largest hotel chains in the world and we are delighted that Indian Newslink has the opportunity to host its Lecture at this famous venue. In fact, it is a homecoming for us- we launched our Business Awards at this venue in November 2008 and about three years later, in July 2011, our Lecture Series. Our brands have grown, thanks to your patronage and the opening of the JW Marriott provides us with a fresh opportunity to host the event.
While JW Marriott Hotel offers limited Valet Parking (on payment), there are a few Wilson Car Park facilities close to the Hotel. Please check our advertisement for details.
New Zealand Immigration
Immigration Minister Michael Wood will be the Guest Speaker at this formal, Black Tie Dinner event. He will be speaking on ‘Rebalancing Immigration to optimise Human Capital.’
Since taking charge of the Immigration portfolio in June last year, Mr Wood has made significant changes to immigration settings, understanding the needs of the business sector and families that have been separated since the Covid-19 lockdowns and border closure.
As an elected Member of Parliament from Mt Roskill and as a person who moves closely with people, he understands the importance of immigration and filling the shortage of skills felt in many sectors of the economy.
He inherited a system that was replete with delays, policy failures and an immigration policy that was considered unfriendly. Over the past nine months, he has ushered in significant changes, which are seen as invigorating and futuristic.
Workplace Relations and Safety and exploitation of migrant workers are also a challenge and hence a practical approach is needed to address the challenges.
It was such a need that prompted us to choose the topic for Indian Newslink Lecture 2022.
We call it Lecture 2022 since it is being held within the financial year. Our Lecture 2023 will be held in July/August 2023, details about which will be announced in due course.
Population Policy
While New Zealand is one of the few countries that depend on immigration for employment and economic progress, successive governments must decide how the need for a foreign workforce, their settlement in New Zealand with their families, the education of their children and other socio-economic aspects.
We have often stressed the importance of a sound Population Policy that determines the demographic profile of New Zealand, a fool-proof system of immigration and a mechanism that is responsive to the changing needs of the economy are among the factors that will help in sustainable growth.
Achievement of these elements will enable New Zealand to address the current shortage of skilled and unskilled labour and assist in the growth of businesses.
A public debate on the Population Policy is imperative and the process must begin as a multi-party approach with all political parties agreeing to participate in the national debate and encourage people to have their say.
As a country with a small population of five million, New Zealand will need sound human capital and such capital must be diverse and suitable to our specific needs. Former Regional Development Minister Shane Jones expressed the need for such a discussion but there was no follow-up. We hope that Mr Wood will pick up the thread.
India’s resource
India’s High Commissioner to New Zealand Neeta Bhushan will provide her Reflections on the Lecture-ideally assessing the growing importance of India as the Human Resource capital of the world with millions of highly skilled people capable of filling the gap currently experienced by New Zealand and other developed countries that depend on migrant workers.
India’s External Affairs Minister Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has been calling for ‘greater mobility’ for his fellow citizens and had raised the issue with his New Zealand counterpart Nanaia Mahuta in Auckland in October 2022 and in New Delhi last fortnight.
This mobility factor is immigration as well as a human resource issue, which can be addressed respectively by Mr Wood and Ms Bhushan.
We hope that our Lecture will provide an effective platform to stimulate a continuous debate.
Diversity, Inclusion and Ethnic Communities Minister Priyanca Radhakrishnan will be the Master of Ceremonies at the Lecture, while Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown will deliver the Welcome Address.
Praveena Karunaharan, Company Secretary and Group Head-Governance, Risk and Regulator Affairs, Snowy Hydro Limited, Sydney, Australia, will provide the Concluding Remarks and Raj Pardeep Singh, Principal and Partner at Legal Associates Barristers and Solicitors will provide the Curtain Raiser on the Lecture.
The following is from our earlier report:
The raging debate
Although the contributions of the migrant communities to the growth of the economies that depend on them are indubitable, there is a constant war between the protagonists and the antagonists. Those opposed to migration- in New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America – say that migrants take away the jobs that can be normally done by the natives and that employers prefer imported human resources because they are ‘cheaper,’ creating an artificial supply-demand imbalance.
Much of these arguments is of course balderdash.
Almost all OECD countries depend on foreign labour to work in their industries, plants and offices. Europe is a prime example of mobility of people- travelling to work from one country to another has been a normal occurrence for decades- that had stopped during the pandemic but appears to have resumed in the past year or so.
The International Student Power
Immigration policy has been changed to target immigrants with better labour market prospects. Changes have been made to temporary migration programmes, which are a conduit to permanent residence, and to the points system for skilled immigration to increase skills requirements. Planned changes to employer-assisted temporary work visas will reduce employers’ reliance on low-skilled migration and, together with education and welfare reforms, improve job prospects for some lower-skilled New Zealanders. New Zealand enrolled about 120,000 international students before the pandemic. Prolonged border closures during the pandemic have seen the number of student visa holders fall below 15,000 as of 31 July 2022. Former international students are an important feeder of labour migration in many countries.
It has been so in New Zealand for more than 50 years with international students from Fiji, India, China and other countries of South Asia establishing themselves as successful entrepreneurs, professionals, politicians and sportspersons.
There are about five million international students enrolled in the OECD, accounting for on average 10% of all tertiary students. While the destinations of international students have diversified over the past decade, the main origin countries remain China and India (22% and 10% of all international students, respectively).
Experience Our Lecture
They constitute a significant source of employment and their power should not be underestimated.
New Zealand is at the crossroads of immigration and emigration. The brain drain caused by a large number of home-grown or developed talent challenges the government and employers on the one hand and the inability of the system to cope with the rising demand for workers on the other.
The Immigration Minister must make a choice and grapple with the problem before it gets out of hand. Already, it is a little late in the day but further delays may be harmful.
The forthcoming Indian Newslink Lecture, the Twelfth in an annual series will therefore set the pace for future debate and action.
Tickets, priced at $150 plus GST per person and tables seating ten persons at $1500 plus GST per table are available. Please email venkat@indiannewslink.nz
