Low skills of permanent residents in New Zealand in last five years has been attributed to international students exploiting the student visa scheme, Radio New Zealand reports.
Official documents say New Zealand’s decision to allow international students to work after completion of their course, who then gain points for permanent residency, has led to ‘gradual decline in the average skill level of new permanent migrants’ over the last five years.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has advised ministers on the impact of changes the Labour-led government wants to make to remove this option for students wanting to study, and then settle, in New Zealand.
The report states that Indian international students are much more likely to become residents suggesting they are ‘more driven by migration prospects than quality education’.
New Zealand’s decision to relax English language proficiency standards in 2013 resulted in an increase in the number of students from India from about 8000 in 2013 to just over 19,000 in 2015.
Later, when they tightened the standards the numbers dropped back to about 16,000 in 2017.
The NZ government is now mulling the idea of giving work permission to those studying at degree, or equivalent, level.
Officials told RNZ that 12,000 students, who got an 'open post-study visa' in 2017 which leads to permanent residency, would not have got the visa if the proposed new rules had been in place.
While Immigration Minister Ian Lees-Galloway raised his concern that ‘there are some people who by virtue of studying in New Zealand, get points towards residency that helps them achieve residency when they wouldn't otherwise based on their skill level,’ the National's immigration spokesperson Simon Bridges defended his government and said, "This is a sector that's provided billions of dollars for New Zealand, it's a quality sector and I think the new government needs to be very careful before they started playing around with that and putting $3 or $4 billion at jeopardy".
