Paula has worked taking calls for the family violence support service Shine for two years and says the number of calls from migrants is increasing.
“It’s hard to say how many a day … it depends on the day. There are days that I can have eight calls like that and there are days that I don’t have any,” she said.
“For instance, I had two today, that’s actually why I was late to this interview time with you today.”
Paula (Newsroom has decided not to publish her surname due to privacy reasons) said being a migrant was complex – she’s on a work visa herself – but it was even more complex if family violence was a factor.
“Because people that are from overseas don’t understand the language and understand the system, you don’t know how to explain yourself.
“And you don’t want to expose your partner to that because you’re worried about the immigration department.”
She recalled one instance that had been on her mind “for months” where she tried to help a woman who was being physically and sexually assaulted by her partner.
“She was from Tonga, and her partner had a work visa, and she was waiting for him to decide if he wanted to give her the ‘here with a partner on a work visa’, so she was under the tourist visa here with her daughter.
“I told her to escape … I made a safety plan for her. I told her to take her belongings, take her child and go to McDonalds and I would call the police so wait for the police to show up.”
However, the police did not show, and after two hours the woman told Paula she had to leave otherwise her partner would get suspicious.
Paula has not heard from her since.
From May 31 last year, as part of the “immigration rebalance” brought in by the previous government, partners of people on an Accredited Employer Work Visa and the Essential Skills Work Visa who applied for a new Partner of a Worker Work Visa (PWWV) faced new, tighter, conditions.
The rebalance sought to support a higher-productivity, higher-wage economy.
Previously a partner was eligible for a visa that allowed them to take on nearly every type of work, including low paid jobs.
However under the changes this is no longer the case, and severely limits the type of work a partner can do.
They can only work for an accredited employer, they cannot be self-employed and there are wage thresholds – as high as the median wage for some jobs which is currently $31.61 an hour.
It means it’s more likely that partners become totally financially dependent on the main earner, making it near-impossible to leave if they are being abused.
Only some partners are now eligible for an open work visa, and this is if the main applicant earns twice the median wage (about $60 an hour) via an Accredited Employer Work Visa or Essential Skills Work Visa or works in a ‘Green List’ role, and meets certain requirements.
In March 2023 the Government did extend the Victims of Family Violence Work Visa to partners of those on temporary visas, if they had a partnership visa such as a PWWV.
The PWWV can be obtained even without a job offer. However, the person does need the main applicant’s approval, something Paula said could also be used as a form of control and abuse.
“I also have a work visa so I’m holding the work visa and my partner has a partner visa and I don’t abuse him but it would be so easy for me to go immigration and make a story up about him … get it removed … that power dynamic exists.”
And it’s not just those in dangerous situations who have been impacted.
One partner of a person on a work visa that Newsroom spoke to and agreed not to name, said he was currently able to work because he had a visa from before the changes were brought in, but this would expire next year.
“I work for the film industry and it’s an industry where only self-employed work basically. And my main concern is that not every company is willing to become an accredited employer and also they’re not willing to pay the amount of money that, at this moment, is like $31 an hour for a person … so next year I won’t be able to do this work anymore so all my experience, everything that I’ve done in the past few years, will be basically for nothing.”
He said the chances of finding a job outside the film industry that paid enough for him to get his own work visa were slim.
“It seems a bit cruel to force someone to choose between working in New Zealand or leaving their partners behind, which is something that I have been seeing in my group of friends is already happening, because they cannot survive with a single income because it’s really hard to find a job for the partner.”
He said his options were very limited, and while he was not in an abusive situation, the power dynamic was stark.
“I’m a bit scared, I’m not gonna lie, because it’s going to be pretty hard. I’ve worked in hospitality, I’ve worked cleaning, I’ve worked in agriculture, but those aren’t jobs that pay with $31 an hour.”
Green Party immigration spokesman Ricardo Menéndez March said these scenarios were forewarned when the previous government signalled the changes back in 2022.
“We warned of increased financial stresses and a higher risk of family violence as a result of stripping many partners of migrants from their work rights and we are now seeing feedback on the exact issues we raised at the time as a result of a partner becoming fully financially dependent on the primary visa holder.”
He described the situation as a “ticking time bomb”. Migrants had reached out directly to him about the concerns they had from losing their financial independence, and being forced to become financially dependent on the primary visa holder.
“We should not wait for a harrowing incident of family violence to reverse these changes. [Immigration Minister] Erica Stanford is sitting on a ticking time bomb of potentially really dangerous situations occurring and the right thing to do would be to restore the working rights of partners so that families can thrive and not be put into situations to financial duress.”
In opposition, National’s Stanford was against the changes, saying they would put people off moving to New Zealand and she didn’t understand the rationale.
Responding to Newsroom’s questions now, the minister said the settings would be reviewed, but any changes were not an immediate priority.
“As part of the coalition agreement with Act, the Government has agreed to look at liberalising the rules to make it easier for family members of visa holders to work in New Zealand, beginning with Skilled Migrant Category visa holders.
“The timeframe for considering this is part of a broader look at the immigration work programme.”
We have many skilled migrants that we need, whose partners may not be able to get jobs paying $31 an hour, so not only does this open the partners to potentially abusive relationships it also means that the skilled migrant may go elsewhere. For many skilled professions there is a competitive global market, eg IT, Health, Teaching, Police…. so if we want to attract people we need to welcome them and their families and enable their partners to also earn. It also means they then pay taxes!!! Would have thought Govt woudl appreciate more tax income.
Or does the govenment wait until someone from overseas is killed by their partner before they do anything.
As important as ‘skilled migrants’ seem to be here on A/NZ, globally the main movement problem is refugees. Refugees were made the main driver of global relations, replacing the nation state, when the Cheney / Bush administration invaded Iraq knowing full well there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.