In 2012 Immigration and Associate Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy said “Migrant workers make up a small but significant part of the dairy industry workforce, filling the gaps where there are not enough New Zealanders available.” “There are now around 1500 migrant dairy workers in the country, making up 6% of the workforce. The majority come Read more
If you’re looking for a two-parent, man-and-wife, never-divorced kind of family, head to one of those citizenship ceremonies. If you want to find traditional American family values—a man and a woman officially married to one of their “own kind,” no plans for divorce, an older dad who is the breadwinner, a stay-at-home mom—the best place Read more
Pope Francis on Tuesday called on countries to protect migrants as he condemned the treatment of refugees as mere “pawns on the chessboard of humanity.’” The pope’s statement came in a message for the Vatican’s next “World Day of Migrants and Refugees,” set for January 19. “Migrants and refugees are not pawns on the chessboard Read more
For the the past three years, on the 4th Sunday of each month, Fr. Michael Mahoney, the parish priest of South Westland, makes the 750km round trip to Queenstown to celebrate Mass using the Portuguese language, for Brazilian people living and working there. After mass there is a social pot-luck meal. There are more than two thousand Brazilians working and living Read more
On the day when Catholics throughout New Zealand were praying for refugees and migrants Winston Peters suggested that New Zealand’s superannuation fund could be conserved by making elderly migrants ineligible. He told the the New Zealand First Conference in Palmerston North on the weekend that migrants were taking advantage of the universal pension scheme. Singling out “a Read more
As many mainstream churches are counting their flock of faithful in dwindling numbers, Ashburton’s Catholic parishes are counting theirs in new faces.
And that, says Parish priest Father Geoff Gray, has a lot to do with the influx of immigrants into the district.
The growing number of Pacific Islanders, Filippino and Latin American families now calling Ashburton home are bringing with them a strong Catholic faith and a strong desire to be part of the district’s Catholic community, he said.