The Government was warned that it was creating a "two-tier" welfare system which could potentially worsen racial inequality when it introduced the higher, tax-free, more accessible benefit in May. Read more

Arunima Dhingra says there has been a tightening up which has not been acknowledged.

• 14 per cent of Indian applicants for the employer-assisted work visa were rejected last year compared to 4 per cent for Chinese applicants.
• In the essential skills work visa category, 19 per cent of declines were for Indian applicants.
• Of those in the country unlawfully, 922 of 2541 Indian applicants were approved compared to 828 of 1232 Chinese applicants and 239 of 310 British immigrants.

Immigration New Zealand denies there has been any change.

"Every time we've asked immigration 'what's happening? Are you singling them out? Is there a different way of processing applications for Indian nationals?' We've always had 'no, it's never that,'" said Dhingra.

Immigration lawyer Alastair McClymont says Immigration NZ's "absolute discretion" in decision-making inevitably leads to racial discrimination.

He says Indian students in New Zealand are correctly identified as being vulnerable to exploitation.

But "Immigration NZ's only solution to the problem of exploitation would appear to be to remove vulnerable students."

And he says they are doing it by cutting corners on Indian applicants' fundamental common law rights to have applications processed in a fair and just manner.

A year ago Immigration New Zealand introducing a new complaints process.

While decisions were previously able to be overturned in the complaint process, from May 2017 on this right was taken away.

At the same time, Immigration New Zealand began advising the minister that its strategy to clamp down on migrant exploitation was to target those migrants who are at risk of exploitation - to deport people who may become victims, rather than stop the exploitation itself.

Source

• radionz.co.nz
• radionz.co.nz
• Image: radionz.co.nz

He alluded to changing the regulations to keep smaller retail operations for Samoan business people only.

He acknowledged there was growing resentment among local business owners over overseas operators, but he encouraged them to learn from the Chinese about operating profitable businesses.

Earlier in the month Moata'a village had joined a growing list of Samoan villages that have banned Asian-owned businesses from opening.

James Zhuang has been in Samoa for more than five years and working at his father's store in Apia.

He planned to expand his business by opening a shop in Moata'a.

"However, the day the store was supposed to open, the Moata'a village council stepped in and that's when everything changed," said Zhuang.

Zhuang claims he is the victim of racism. "I know I am a Chinese man, and that is why the village does not allow me to open my store, yet other Samoans have opened up new shop in Moata'a."

"I will bring no harm to the village; I will abide by the rules and regulations of the village council."

Paramount chief, Asi Blakelock told the Sunday Samoan the landlord is one of his chiefs.

He said the landlord should have consulted the Village Council first before he made a deal with Zhuang.

"The Village Council was informed the night before the store was to open.'

"This new business came as a shock to us when we were informed that it would be operated by an Asian man."

Asi said a long standing rule in Moata'a bans Asians from opening a business there.

"It's not just Asians, the village also bans the selling of alcohol in the village stores."

Source

• Samoa Observer
• RNZ
• RNZ
• Image: Amau Appartments

Peters says a move to set up a new ethnicity-based political party for Asian and Indian immigrants is a "an extraordinary demand" which will harm New Zealand.

The People's Party has been set up and acting leader Rohan Nauhria.

He told RNZ the party would campaign on issues such as crime and was aiming to get into Parliament by focusing on the Indian and other Asian communities.

The party launch coincides with the prime minister John Key writing an open letter to ethnic media outlets in a bid to reassure ethnic communities.

In the letter he said that the Government was focused on crime after concerns about rising burglaries.

Key said he was not surprised the party had emerged given the recent focus on migration.

He doubted it would get into Parliament, based on the history of similar one-issue parties and its lack of a well-known leader.

The People's Party plans to stand in the Mt Roskill by-election if Phil Goff is elected Mayor in the Auckland Council elections.

National's likely candidate in the byelection will be Indian-born Parmjeet Parmar, who migrated to New Zealand in 1995.

Labour has already selected Michael Wood, who is well known in the electorate as a local board member.

Although Labour has held the seat for decades, National got more of the party vote in 2014.

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• Image:

Fatima Abdulkarem, 19, has turned down a job trial at a juice bar at Auckland Airport over what she felt was discriminatory and racist treatment during her job interview.

Her story followed that of Fatima Mohammadi, 20, who was turned away from an interview when she refused to agree to take off her hijab on the job.

Because of New Zealand's rapidly growing diversity issues like these are going to increase in the future.

More than 25 per cent of New Zealanders were born born overseas.

In Auckland

• Almost 50 per cent of the population is Maori, Asian and Pasifika
• 44 per cent were not born in New Zealand
• There are over 200 ethnicities, and 160 languages spoken.

A superdiverse population is a population with 100 or more ethnicities.

New Zealand is now closer to 200.

Lawyer Mai Chen has been researching the effect of New Zealand's superdiversity.

Chen recommends a formal multi-cultural policy so that implications of an ethnically diverse society on law and policy can be analysed.

Her 400 page Superdiverisity Stocktake, officially launched last week, looks at a range of legal issues that may arise from a superdiverse population.

It makes 78 recommendations for business and public agencies from 58 key findings.

"Superdiversity will bring more legal challenges for breaches of the right to be free from discrimination and the rights of minorities to language culture and religion under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 and the Human Rights Act 1993," she says.

"It's not about race, it's not just about equality and fairness, it's a much bigger issue than that," Chen told Australasian Lawyer.

"It has significant impacts on our economy, on how business is done, on government and on law."

Taiwan-born Chen is the managing partner law firm of Chen Palmer.
Source

• australasianlawyer.com.au
• nzherald.co.nz
• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: nzherald.co.nz

A a young woman Keju championed the cause of nuclear weapons test survivors. She took to a global stage at the World Council of Churches Assembly in Canada in 1983 to tell the world about the health impact of the American nuclear tests, and of the US Army's discrimination against Marshall Islanders at its missile-testing base at Kwajalein Atoll.

"This book is a story of a personal transformation of a young lady who once knew little English to an advocate for her people, the victims of the weapons of war," writes Fr. Francis X. Hezel, SJ, in the foreword to the new book.

Hezel, who founded the Jesuit think tank known as the Micronesian Seminar in the early 1970s and is now based in Guam, says the book is the "tale of a woman who loved her people, seeing them as so much more than victims of nuclear irradiation and colonial despoilment.

"For those of us who have cheered on island Micronesia through the years, it is a welcome change to read a tribute to someone who is home grown.

"Although no saint or flag-waver, Darlene shared with Mother Theresa and Greg Mortenson (of Three Cups of Tea fame) the courage to dream daringly along with the commitment and patience to settle for one step — one family, one atoll — at a time."

Source

• Pacific Scoop
• Image: pacificinstitute.anu.au

But views are divided however on whether the problem is a lack of tolerance across the board or white institutional racism against people of colour.

At a Conference on Racism convened by Auckland Council's Ethnic Peoples Advisory Panel at AUT University on Saturday, many of the audience members, hailing from countries all over the world, spoke about the institutional racism they had faced in New Zealand - from being pulled over by police for no reason, to sitting down on public transport next to white people who immediately vacated their seats, to being racially profiled for searches at the airport while whites were left alone.

Panel chairperson Dr Camille Nakhid, who is also acting chair of the advisory board of the Pacific Media Centre, was just one of the many speakers who pointed out that combatting racist attitudes meant talking about white privilege and white supremacy.

The panel had "met with a considerable amount of opposition" to its plan to hold a conference on racism, Nakhid said.

Source

• Pacific Scoop
• Image: Pacific Scoop

The call to march came from the Auckland City Council appointed Pacific Peoples Advisory Panel, which says it wants to stop being a "rubber stamp" for council policies and create an independent Pacific forum.

The chairman of the Advisory Panel is Reverend Uesifili Unasa, Auckland University chaplain. He said the march is a community initiative to give visibility to the growing inequality of people, families and communities in New Zealand society.

"The decision by the organisers to march is a reluctant one. However, such is the concern and frustration by our communities for our families, children and communities that remaining silent or doing nothing is no longer an option," said Uesifili.

Church youth leader Harry Toleafoa said of the march: "My generation is standing up for our parents who have cleaned this city and worked its factory floors."

When the protestors gathered in Aotea Square, one of the speakers, Efeso Collins, from Advance Pasifika, called for the ministers, priests and MPs in the crowd "to come forth so the people could see their leaders." The The Auckland Now reporter did not say how many did so.

The March which, has been called "the march for the poor", attracted about 1000 people.

The organisers hope the march will lead to specific council initiatives to help Pacific Islanders and create better representation at council level.

Source

• TVNZ
• Auckland Now
• Image: Pacific Art Stuff.co.nz