Report of the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee

Transcription

1 Report of the Controller and Auditor-General, Immigration New Zealand: Supporting new migrants to settle and work Progress in responding to the Auditor-General s recommendations Report of the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee Contents Recommendation 2 Introduction 2 Progress with addressing the recommendations 3 Update from Immigration New Zealand 4 Conclusion 5 Appendix 6

2 Report of the Controller and Auditor-General, Immigration New Zealand: Supporting new migrants to settle and work, Progress in responding to the Auditor-General s recommendations Recommendation The Transport and Industrial Relations Committee has examined the report of the Controller and Auditor-General, Immigration New Zealand: Supporting new migrants to settle and work, Progress in responding to the Auditor-General s recommendations, and recommends that the House take note of its report. Introduction In 2013 the Controller and Auditor-General published a report on a performance audit looking at how well the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), and other agencies, were supporting new migrants to settle and work in New Zealand. The audit focused on the support available to new migrants in the two to five years after they arrive in New Zealand. It considered whether the support services were effective and achieving the desired results. The 2016 report focuses on the progress MBIE has made in responding to the seven recommendations in the 2013 report. Recommendations from the 2013 performance audit report The Control and Auditor-General s performance audit report of 2013 made a number of recommendations to Immigration New Zealand, and MBIE. It recommended that Immigration New Zealand: Work with its government agency partners to advise the Government on an improved settlement governance structure and approach that supports targeting and delivering services effectively to where they are most needed. Use the agreed governance structure to work with government agency partners to maximise resources throughout government towards measurable settlement outcomes for new migrants. Monitor and review the governance structure to ensure its ongoing effectiveness. Implement evaluation and monitoring frameworks and outcome reporting for wholeof-government settlement activities, including the services purchased by Immigration New Zealand, to ensure efficient and effective use of resources that meet the needs of new migrants. 2

3 Continue to improve the information that it provides to potential new migrants so that they have more realistic expectations of life in New Zealand. Use the information gathered from the migration research programme and work with other agencies to rationalise and better target resources to overcome known barriers to employment, and provide services needed for secondary skilled migrants and temporary work visa holders. It recommended that MBIE: Improve the quality of information it reports to the Government and more widely by including appropriate context information and data about principal and secondary skilled migrants and improving methods for reporting on retention. The 2013 findings showed there was slow progress towards implementing a settlement evaluation and monitoring framework. Because of this, MBIE could not report on measurable settlement outcomes achieved on the settlement services offered to new migrants. Progress with addressing the recommendations The Office of the Auditor-General told us that since 2013 it has received regular updates from Immigration New Zealand on the implementation of the recommendations. The June 2016 report states that, since 2013, Immigration New Zealand has made good progress in a number of areas, including: strengthening the leadership of migrant settlement by the employment of a new strategy, and governance arrangements; developing and implementing a reporting framework for whole-of-government settlement activities; strengthening the regional approach; and improving communication on where new migrants can access information about settlement services. Regional relationship managers had also been introduced to monitor the new services. However, the report states that it is too early to say how the settlement outcomes of new migrants have been affected, in particular whether the barriers faced by secondary skilled migrants and temporary work visa holders have been reduced. The 2016 report recommends that the ministry needs to continue monitoring and reporting on the effectiveness of the services to ensure that resources are targeted where they are most needed. Immigration New Zealand has been working on improving services for the partners of migrants, and in December 2015 the Immigration Levy replaced the Migrant Levy. This will allow future settlement services to target both skilled migrants and temporary work visa holders. Future initiatives Future initiatives include: a one-to-one mentoring service to be provided by Careers New Zealand in Auckland that aims to support new migrants to gain meaningful employment the New Zealand Police expanding safety patrols beyond Auckland to other cities 3

4 Immigration New Zealand and the Tertiary Education Commission developing an online assessment and referral tool to direct new migrants to providers of English tuition a social media campaign by the Human Rights Commission to address casual racism and discrimination. The Office of the Auditor-General told us that it is currently doing further work with all agencies involved in border security to look at their use of information to secure borders. This work includes an audit of the visa application process to explore how efficient it is and what customers think of it. Update from Immigration New Zealand Immigration New Zealand updated us on progress in the settlement area since the 2013 audit. We heard that it considered the Auditor-General s 2016 report to be a fair assessment of the progress made, but that it also pointed out that there was more work to be done. The Migrant Settlement and Integration Strategy In July 2014 Cabinet approved the Migrant Settlement and Integration Strategy, and new governance arrangements. The strategy focuses on migrants economic contribution to New Zealand as well as their social well-being. The strategy also reinforces Immigration New Zealand s leadership role in whole-of-government settlement services. The strategy has five outcomes and 16 success indicators covering employment, education and training, English language, inclusion, and health and well-being. Each outcome has an annual planning process and all agencies involved assess the priority order. The role of regional relationship managers Immigration New Zealand said that the introduction of regional relationship managers has been very successful in helping migrants to settle in and obtain work. We heard that relationship managers work with potential employers to help them match migrants to employment. They also provide retention and planning advice to employers to promote business growth. English language programmes We heard that a lot of effort has gone into foundation-level literacy and English language teaching, but there is not a great selection of higher-level tuition or courses. Short, intensive programmes are needed to get migrants English up to the high level sought by employers. Immigration New Zealand said that information about where migrants can learn English could be improved. It is developing a settlement information website that includes regional settlement information and information targeted at partners of skilled migrants. It is also monitoring the use of the New Zealand Now website and Facebook page, and introducing other useful tools. 4

5 Matching qualifications and experience with employment We asked what Immigration New Zealand is doing to help migrants have their work experience recognised so they can work in New Zealand in the fields they are experienced in. We are concerned that there is evidence to support that some do not achieve this. We heard that Immigration New Zealand works to identify the gaps in high level jobs and that there is a concerted effort to match up the skills of migrants with New Zealand s shortage of skills in certain fields. New Zealand law requires people to be registered before they can work in some occupations. Applicants may also enter New Zealand on an Occupational Registration Visitor Visa, which allows entry for the purpose of obtaining New Zealand occupational registration. We would be interested to know how many people holding an Occupational Registration Visitor Visa gain employment in their registered occupation. Some of us consider that the 84 percent figure provided by Immigration New Zealand for migrants being matched with jobs that suited their qualifications should be improved upon. Immigration New Zealand told us that 8 percent of migrants who arrived in the country last year did not come to a specific job. This 8 percent would include engineers and IT experts, for example, who should be assured of getting a job. However, we understand that while many of the 8 percent are employed, it is not always in the area of their expertise. We asked how many migrants who arrived without a job did get a job and whether the employment rate for migrants was a lot higher than that for New Zealand residents. Immigration New Zealand did not have those statistics available; however, it subsequently told us that MBIE has a research project underway utilising the Integrated Data Infrastructure and that the results of this project were due in late September. We look forward to receiving an update. We wanted to know how many skilled migrants were educated overseas and how many were educated in New Zealand, as there appeared to be more migrants staying on in New Zealand with a post-study job search visa. We subsequently heard that, according to the latest data available, 23 percent of students at a degree level who finished their studies in 2010 transitioned into residency three years later. Some of us are concerned that the proportion of degree-level or higher graduates transitioning to residency, has fallen over the last five years. Partnership with Citizens Advice Bureau Immigration New Zealand has formed a partnership with the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) to help support migrants to settle. We asked if Immigration New Zealand was happy with the work CAB was doing for migrants. We heard that CAB does need to work harder in some areas, but it is on track with upskilling its volunteers and improving its service. Conclusion We commend the Office of the Auditor-General on its report which identifies where work can usefully be done and highlights the good work that Immigration New Zealand is doing. We look forward to seeing further progress being made. 5

6 Appendix Committee procedure The committee met between 16 June and 8 September 2016 to consider the report of the Controller and Auditor-General, Immigration New Zealand: Supporting new migrants to settle and work Progress in responding to the Auditor-General s recommendations. We heard evidence from the Office of the Auditor-General, and Immigration New Zealand. Committee members Jonathan Young (Chairperson) Andrew Bayly Peeni Henare Iain Lees-Galloway Clayton Mitchell Sue Moroney Dr Parmjeet Parmar Denise Roche Alastair Scott Hon Maurice Williamson Dr Jian Yang 6