Integrating migrant workers

There is no doubt that migrant workers are required to help fill labour and skill shortages, but it can take time for businesses to maximise the skills they bring. Judi Altinkaya, Immigration New Zealand’s National Manager for Settlement, says that employers can benefit from some simple tips that can make all the difference to settling and retaining migrant workers in their workplaces.

To help employers and their Kiwi employees recruit and better integrate migrants into their workplaces, Immigration New Zealand has created the helpful guide Are You Employing Migrant Construction Workers?

Over the next few issues of Under Construction, we’ll be featuring content from this guide so that when you encounter issues, you’ll have a better idea of how to deal with them. Remember, understanding the challenges migrants face may help you help them increase their productivity.

Is employing migrant workers right for you?

While employing migrant workers can be a great asset to your business, it’s important to consider a few things before jumping into it.

1. Many migrant workers are here on a temporary visa and may only be here for a limited amount of time.
2. Migrants may be used to different employer-worker relationships from what we have in New Zealand. To get the best from them, your style of managing them might need to change slightly from how you manage a New Zealand employee.
3. Migrants may have limited, or no, experience of working in New Zealand’s construction industry and they might need a bit of extra training – our tools, the words we use and the way things are done may be new to them.
4. English might not be their first language, so you may need to take more time when telling them how things are done.
5. Migrants come from different cultures and often value different things from Kiwis.

What visa do they require?

There are a number of immigration visa options for migrant workers, depending on their occupation and your offer of employment. Which of the following is best for your business needs?

Work to Residence:  Allows a migrant to work in New Zealand. After working in the job for at least 24 months, they can then apply for a resident visa.

Work Visa: Allows a migrant who works in a profession that is experiencing skill shortages, or has a job offer from an accredited employer, to live and work in New Zealand for a set period time.

Resident Visa: Allows a migrant to live and work in New Zealand indefinitely and access most public funded services. Most resident visas are granted through the Skilled Migrant Category – a points system based on factors such as age, work experience, qualifications, and an offer of skilled employment.

Approval in Principle: If you have job vacancies and can’t find suitable New Zealanders to fill them, you can apply to INZ for an Approval in Principle to bring in migrant workers.

“While employing migrant workers can be a great asset to your business, it’s important to consider a few things before jumping into it

How to find skilled migrants

There are some online sites to help employers locate skilled migrants.

New Kiwis is a free national employment service provided by the Auckland Chamber of Commerce. It connects overseas and local migrant job seekers with New Zealand Employers. www.newkiwis.co.nz

SkillFinder is a free service provided by Immigration New Zealand to help employers with vacant, permanent positions that they are unable to fill locally. SkillFinder connects employers with Immigration New Zealand’s database. www.immigration.govt.nz/employers/skillfinder

The Canterbury Skills and Employment Hub is a free job-matching service, where an employer can register vacancies which are then matched against a database of job seekers to find the best fit for your needs. The Hub aims to ensure that firms can easily get the staff they need locally – and, where that’s not possible, there’s a streamlined process to help them access offshore migrants to meet their needs.

Visa holders and NZ law

Migrants to New Zealand have the same rights and obligations under New Zealand law as any other person living here, but it is particularly important that newcomers obey the law.

Breaking the law can put your new employee’s visa status, and their family’s status, at risk. Immigration New Zealand can require non-citizens to leave New Zealand if they consider the offence calls into question the migrant’s good character. This can include any criminal offending (such as driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs) and may apply to migrants with permanent residence visas as well as temporary workers, regardless of the reason for their stay, or the needs of the employer.

Giving immigration advice

Under the Immigration Advisers Licensing Act 2007, immigration advice can only be provided by licenced immigration advisers or exempt persons. The Act distinguishes between the provision of advice (which is restricted to licensed immigration advisers and exempt persons) and the provision of publicly available information.

Passing publicly available information to a migrant employee, or prospective migrant employee, that they could have obtained for themselves is not considered to be providing “immigration advice”. Adding your knowledge of, or personal experience in immigration, to advise, assist or direct someone is providing “immigration advice”.

‘Nu Zulander’ expressions. Keep an eye on them!

When employing migrants, whether or not English is their first language, it’s important to remember that they may not understand the terms or expressions we use. One employer said he told a migrant worker to “keep an eye on them” referring to some labourers. However, while the migrant worker did just that, and afterwards let the employer know what hadn’t been done correctly, he didn’t realise that meant that he should speak up if they were doing something wrong during the process.