As the pandemic rages overseas, there’s been some good news for foreign workers here with the Government extending working holiday visas and employer-assisted visas.
The announcement is expected to help nearly 100,000 people like café worker Lior Dvash.
“Pretty relieved, ecstatic, it's just really stressful having to apply for visas during the pandemic,” Dvash said.
Not only is she staying beyond February but a new rule change also means she can work too.
“I wasn't sure what I was going to do for a whole year if I couldn’t work - that was definitely worrying for me.”
Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi said other changes include making it easier for workers to move between industries as well as postponing the stand-down period.
“This will not just aid those workers but also the businesses who are finding it difficult,” Faafoi said.
While the Government says its priority remains getting Kiwis into jobs, Dairy NZ CEO Tim Mackle says an earlier campaign to do so failed to attract the 1000 people it had hoped to recruit, instead only bringing in a few hundred.
“Unemployment at the same time didn't rise to the levels we thought and other factors like the wage subsidy that arguably might be holding people back.”
It’s the same problem for Restaurant Association NZ CEO Marisa Bidois who said up to 40 per cent of hospitality staff are currently migrant workers.
“We are trying to encourage Kiwis into hospitality but currently we haven't seen those numbers increase.”
Despite this, the Government won't guarantee it'll continue extending visas.
“We can't make that promise,” Faafoi said.
“We don’t know how long the borders are going to be closed for - it could be sometime.”
As for those like Dvash working overseas in a pandemic, she’s just taking things one day at a time.
“This is not what I had planned but this has been the best country I've lived in.”
A country she can stay in a while longer...
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