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Ever since the 1930s, when American soldiers were based all around the world, people in many countries have been antsy about foreigners getting what appears to them to be special treatment or privileges. 

The phrase people used back in the day about the US soldiers was something along the lines of them being overdressed, overpaid, oversexed and over here. 

And the Government seems to be tapping into the same kind of sentiment with this crackdown on employers not following the rules when they want to hire workers from overseas. 

That some employers are going straight to taking-on migrant workers without even trying to find locals to do the work first. Which they’re supposed to do or required to do.  

Immigration Minister Erica Stanford is saying today that, if  employers don’t follow the rules and don’t prioritise hiring New Zealanders, then they can forget about being allowed to hire anyone from overseas ever again. 

She says, since we started giving out accredited work visas to migrant workers three years ago, there are 20,000 more unemployed New Zealanders. 

“We have New Zealanders who are desperate for jobs and they need to be given the first opportunity for those."  

Which I think will go down like a cup of the old proverbial with some employers, who will say they should be allowed to employ whoever they want from wherever they want.  

And that’s a view I agree with. 

It’s something they’ve been pushing back against for years. But where the Government’s current concern stems from, is the number of employers who aren’t telling Work & Income that they’re on the lookout for staff. When they should be. 

That’s because they’re not even interested in hiring locals and just want migrant workers. 

Erica Stanford says more than one-in-six employers just want to employ migrants without considering local workers. 

From the perspective of someone who is unemployed and needing work, I can see how that would be frustrating. 

But does that mean that we should be forcing employers to give locals work over people from overseas? 

It’s a bit rich of the Government to say that we need to turn the education system on its head so young New Zealanders can grow up and be ready to work anywhere in the world; but then, when it comes to people from other countries coming to work here, we go all protectionist on it.   

Employers themselves certainly think they should be free to hire whoever they want. They’ve been saying that since 2016, when the-then National government announced changes to “put kiwis first in line for jobs”. 

Anne Tolley was the social development minister at the time and she said: “The Government is committed to getting more New Zealanders into work by ensuring they are first in line for jobs.” 

Which is the exact same thing Erica Stanford is saying today. 

But I bet it won’t sound any better to employers today than it did nearly 10 years ago. 

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