Dozens of Chinese migrant workers jobless after coughing up thousands for visas
Dozens of Chinese migrant workers are being left jobless and out-of-pocket after paying thousands of dollars for work visas, only to be given no work or dismissed by their employers shortly after they arrive in New Zealand.
Most of them have come into the country on the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) scheme, which started in July last year and was designed to help reduce exploitation. It required companies hiring overseas workers to show paperwork proving they were good migrant employers.
The visa abuse has been noticed by multiple agencies, including Immigration New Zealand (INZ), the Chinese Embassy and several community service groups.
INZ said 63,075 visas were approved under the scheme between August 2022 and May this year.
What’s that you say?
More migrant workers exploited in NZ?
No!
Really?
Since 2013, there have been over 405 workplace deaths in NZ.
There are only 550 Worksafe Staff for a working population of 448 000.
There are only 37 inspectors of rental properties for 300 000 terrible rentals.
There are only 82 labour inspectorates who are supposed to police hundreds of thousands of migrant worker exploitations!
With such lax enforcement, NZ will always exploit migrant workers because our deunionised economy is based on exploiting low wage labour!
There is a cultural class dimension of the ram raids and the Dairy violence we are seeing that is rarely investigated.
You have migrant Indian and Chinese workers working in Dairy’s and Bottle shops, many exploited by other Indian and Chinese permanent residents in NZ who are being violently assaulted and attacked by angry and alienated Polynesian and Māori youth who are the legacy of Key’s kids in cars and whose families were thrown out onto the streets thanks to the flawed Meth testing of State Houses while the white middle classes gasp in the suburbs (safely ensconced in their work from home privilege) demanding ‘something must be done’.
We will continue to exploit migrant labour and nothing and no one will stop it because this is NuZilind and the free market has no master except venal self interest.
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