New Zealand’s hospitality sector, training institutions hope new Govt. won’t limit immigration

As general election results of New Zealand will be released on 7 October, its hospitality sector and private training institutions are hoping that the future government will not impose a cap on immigrants entering their country.

Dylan Firth, Hospitality New Zealand advocacy and policy manager, was quoted by scoop.co.nz as saying that all industries depend on extra vacancies for staff, as hiring skilled labour was always tough and that limiting their presence will hamper them from hiring those people more.

He said that though numbers may be reduced if the industry has demand for it, it is not likely that numbers would be reduced as much as the contesting parties say they would.

Figures of the government demonstrate that food and beverage services and accommodation comprised for about 16 percent of the country’s entire retail spending in the year ending March 2017, an increase from 13 percent in 2008. Around 150,000 people are employed in accommodation and food service all over New Zealand and it is expected that 10,000 more workers would be needed to meet increasing demand by 2020. Firth says that local staff won’t be enough to fill these vacancies. Similar concerns are voiced by private education institutions. Clare Bradley, head of Aspire2, the international arm of a private training company, said that it has significantly affected her business over the past one and half years, with students from India now making for 33 percent of those places. Bradley said that what they were looking for is the continuation of this policy, so when the government takes decisions, changes will not happen so quickly and things would not be modified drastically. She said that they were advocating caution and asking that international education must be viewed differently from the other policy settings of immigration. Aspire2, the largest vocational courses' provider for international students in New Zealand, offers courses in IT, hospitality, engineering, business, English and cookery. Bradley said their company is closely associated with the industry, as it develops and reviews programmes with inputs from business houses to create jobs for its students. She said that Aspire2 wants to ensure to see to it that policy settings are consistent, clear and firm. The existing administration had been making international students their target, with a goal of doubling New Zealand’s income from them to NZD5 billion by 2025 from 2013. Figures made public by the government show that education exports were NZD3.55 billion in the year ending March 2017, a rise from NZD2.43 billion in 2013. If you are looking to migrate to New Zealand, get in touch with Y-Axis, a renowned immigration services company, to apply for an appropriate visa.