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
The long term lack of services for migrants and refugees in Auckland has resulted in a lost generation of refugees to crime, early marriage, unemployment, drugs and illiteracy, an Auckland Council report says. The report, Funded Services to Migrants and Refugees in Auckland, was completed earlier this year and aimed to provide a snapshot of Read more
The Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office is encouraging local communities in Australia to welcome seasonal workers from the Pacific region into their parishes. As from 2 July up to 2000 places are available in 2012-13 for seasonal workers. They will be able to spend six months in Australia, working in hospitality, horticulture and other Read more
The need to send remittances home makes it very difficult for for Pacific Island migrants living in Australia to save and invest in assets or the education of their own families. It creates enormous pressure often leads to resentment. Queensland University Associate Professor Richard Brown said Samoans, Tongans and Cook Islanders have a culture of Read more
Australia’s Labour government may have to resort to sending asylum seekers to Nauru without their preferred option of transferring them to Malaysia after appeals by the government for the opposition to meet it halfway on policy fell on deaf ears. Despite three cabinet ministers urging yesterday the opposition to allow Labour’s Malaysia plan in return 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
Former Monkee, Davy Jones was remembered in a small private funeral at Holy Cross Catholic Church, Indiantown, close to his home in Florida, and next to Hope Rural School, which Jones has supported. Attending the funeral were his immediate family; his wife and daughters, and besides family, the man who first trained Jones to ride racehorses Read more
“It’s nice not to be the silent referent to other people’s description of migrants as ‘the marginalised” and ‘the oppressed.’ I’m sure a lot of Australians – migrants and home grown alike – feel the same” says Robert Hiini, who migrated from with his parents from New Zealand to Australia when he was 15. “It Read more
Overcrowding is becoming a serious problem in Kiribati and Solomon Islands and rising sea levels are also expected to lead to further climate change refugees. Australia and New Zealand have been told to expect more migration from their Pacific neighbours. Speaking to Cook Islands, Fiji, Filipino, Hong Kong, Indian, Kiribati, New Zealand, Niuean, Samoan and Read more