The problem identified regarding New Zealand Immigration Services’ and the assistance provided to people in regard to immigration matters, has been the inconsistency between consultants and branches to provide stable and reliable information. This has illustrated the problem in terms of a Government Failure framework. This suggests that action must be undertaken by the New Zealand Government to ensure that the funding provided for consultants is distributed in a more productive manner, and such ideas are presented through the Recommendations section. This should in turn meet the standards set forth by the consumer demand, to have a supply of efficient information provided by New Zealand Immigration Service’s consultants.
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To understand the problem further, and analyse whether these recommendations are plausible a qualitative research method was employed. This identified the procedures and actions taken by similar governments regarding the issue of Immigration Services assistance. The United Kingdom, United States of America and Canada were assessed, as they have similar forms of democratic western based structure. The United Kingdom, United States of America, Canada and New Zealand all adopt training for their employees and preach constant revision and understanding of developing policies, the Canadian government advances that “newly hired citizenship and immigration officers are placed in a developmental program and trained on the job. After the initial training period, further training in operational and organizational skills is provided on an ongoing basis.”[1] This is also the case with the United States of America and New Zealand, and is recognised by New Zealand Immigration Services who classify immigration officers as “required to pass warrant training. Skills and knowledge about immigration laws, policies and official procedure are gained on the job. All immigration officers receive ongoing policy and procedure training (including policy updates introduced four times a year).”[2]
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Through a qualitative research method there have been relevant cases presented which illustrate policies implemented in different countries, such as the United States of America’s Immigration and Child Welfare policies which see Immigration Officers interact with immigrants to gain further understandings of circumstances.[3] This idea of working with immigrants to assess their needs, rather than going through a question and answer protocol has been adapted by many governments regarding different issues as it provides more coherent scoping of the difficulties or questions posed by immigrants. It is most commonly adopted for children, as sensitivity is needed when dealing with the impact of immigration on children. It has also been identified in New Zealand where by Child youth and Family work closely with New Zealand Immigration Services when needed. This can be seen in recent cases of cooperation not only when dealing with case workers but on a national scale, where the departments must cooperate and it has been state that “Child Youth and Family would work with Immigration New Zealand to establish what was best for the child.”[4]
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Through further qualitative research it becomes clear that while there is information regarding what is spent New Zealand Immigration Services as part of the Department of Labour Budget, there is no data demonstrating how much is invested in ongoing training of New Zealand Immigration Services employees. However it can be calculated that from the predicted 2009 Budget for New Zealand Immigration Services over 90% is dedicated to customer service and furthering knowledge of New Zealand Immigration employees regarding Immigration Policy. While there is $193,708,000[5] being dedicated to provision of migrant customer services and refugee customer service, there still seems to be incidents of error. This assumes that it is the training which is provided that appears to be flawed. The comparison seen in Table II also identifies this as it recognizes customer dissatisfaction with consultants, and while they were satisfied with the procedure taken to obtain either permanent or temporary residence in New Zealand the advice provided by New Zealand Immigration Service was bellow standards, recording at the bottom 33% of the examined countries. This could possibly suggest that further understanding of the system is required by consultants to produce adequate information. A way of gaining further understanding would possibly be implementation of a new “diploma” similar to those taken for “Travel and Tourism” to gain further understanding into the industry.
Part 6 of 7
Further Discussion
Part 4 of 7
Policy Recommendations and Analysis
[1]The Government of Alberta, Canada “Citizenship and Immigration Officer” July 2006 http://www.alis.gov.ab.ca/occinfo/Content/RequestAction.asp?aspAction=GetHTMLProfile&format=html&OCCPRO_ID=71001744
[2] Career Services New Zealand “Immigration Officer –How to get this job” http://www.careers.govt.nz/default.aspx?id0=30103&id1=J54312
[3] NYC Administration for Children’s Services “Immigration and Language Guidelines for Child Welfare Staff”http://nyc.gov/html/acs/downloads/pdf/immigration_language_guide.pdf
[4]Alice Neville “Newborn in Limbo” in New Zealand Herald March 2009
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/child-youth-and-family/news/article.cfm?o_id=256&objectid=10562906