Restauranters and café owners in New Zealand turned off their lights this week highlighting their staff shortages and inability to bring in labour from overseas. It is a labour shortage echoed by a local priest! “I wonder if I should turn out the lights in Church on Sunday?” he asked. The priest does not want Read more
The state of our national game, and what is best for its future, has generated a lot of recent debate. But there are some contributing factors that might not have had the attention they deserve. The demography of New Zealand is changing, with major implications for rugby, especially for player participation. The impacts of immigration Read more
A 97-year-old woman is among those who fear they will be deported to countries ravaged by coronavirus. Others are in their 70s and 80s and say they face a life of fear and isolation if they have to return to their homelands. They’re among thousands of people affected by the Government freeze on Immigration New Read more
Wealthy foreigners looking for residency status are being courted by New Zealand as prospective immigrants. Stuff reports, a team of five immigration officials – including one in Europe and another in North America –are still promoting “investor interest in New Zealand” so high net-worth investors can enter the country as soon as the borders re-open. Read more
Overseas workers are being ‘consigned to the rubbish heap’ after the government left them with no option except returning home, according to an immigration adviser. Skilled migrants stuck in lengthy queues for residence have been told if they are not eligible for another temporary visa while they wait, they will have to leave. Anthea Razack, Read more
In the past two weeks, a former refugee family stepped into one of our churches. They were days away from the end of their short-term lease and had nowhere to go. The rental market in Wellington was so tough, they said, in this season. Did we have anywhere they could stay? Even if it just Read more
The pandemic has highlighted that immigrants are essential to the fabric of our society, Cardinal Michael Czerny SJ says. Czerny, who has been the under-secretary of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development’s Migrants and Refugees Section since 2017, is urging people to develop local solutions to address the needs of immigrant and refugee Read more
A kebab shop owner who has been feeding homeless people on Sundays has been asked to stop by a local business association over concerns of anti-social behaviour. Zuhaib Abbas Bangash has been feeding the homeless every Sunday from 5.30 pm at his West Auckland shop, Glen Eden Kebab, at Glenmall since November 3. But the selfless act has been Read more
In 2013, while volunteering in India, Graciela Colon first heard the inner stirrings of Jesus calling her to a religious vocation. For three weeks, she helped St. Teresa of Kolkata’s Missionary Sisters of Charity, minister to abandoned children, some of whom were severely disabled. They took the children off the streets and cared for them. Read more
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby says Jesus would not have got a UK visa under the points-based system being proposed by the government. “Our founder Jesus Christ was of course not white, middle class and British – he certainly wouldn’t have got a visa – unless we’re particularly short of carpenters,” Welby told the CBI Read more