Islands Business - Politics: IMMIGRATION ISSUE HEATS UP

Rasmussen tries to find recipe that works

Nina Ratulele
Wilkie Rasmussen, Cook Islands Immigration minister, is a former journalist. Which means he knows the importance of getting all sides of a story. It could lead to answers finally being found to the country’s problems with immigration policy, including claims of discrimination against Fiji people.

This could be good news for many. For local employers trying to use foreign workers to overcome labour shortages and develop their businesses and the economy. For people from places such as Fiji wanting to work in the Cooks. For Cook Islanders worried by an influx of foreign workers. For immigration officers trying to interpret and implement an old law not designed for today’s conditions.

Rasmussen has launched a major look at the whole immigration question, going out from his office to find the answers.

Wilkie Rasmussen... the Cook Islands Immigration Minister.

He is seeking a fairer and simpler process for all and one which meets current Cook Islands needs.

Events now unfolding in Rarotonga, the country’s main island, began before Christmas. They started when immigration officers drew up a list of people allegedly working illegally or overstaying in the Cook Islands
The list has not been released publicly. Around 30 names are believed to be on it, many from Rarotonga’s large Fiji community but also from other communities too. Immigration officers want them deported.

Rasmussen, a lawyer and Member of Parliament for the northern island of Penrhyn, has put any deportations on hold. Then as the New Year started he began meetings with each of the country’s main foreigner communities, including the Fiji community, Filipinos, Samoans and i-Kiribati.

Rasmussen is explaining that Cook Islands immigration laws must be respected and followed. Those on the list drawn up by his officers must quickly sort out their status or go, he stressed. He suggested ways to fix individual problems.

But Rasmussen is also asking about the longer-term problems people are having with its immigration policy and trying to find a lasting solution.

The Cook Islands faces a unique immigration challenge. It doesn’t have the unemployment problems most other Pacific Islands Forum Countries do. Instead, Cook Islands employers say they need to bring in foreign workers to overcome local labour shortages. These are caused by what is known locally as depopulation.

Cook Islanders are happy New Zealand citizens through their country’s status of self government in free association with New Zealand, which administered the Cooks in colonial times.

Cook Islanders can just get on an Air New Zealand or Pacific Blue jet at Rarotonga International Airport and fly off to live and work in New Zealand and Australia any time they want.

Many Cook Islanders do, although not in the same numbers as the big losses of people amidst economic reforms began in the mid- 1990s.

Figures from a national census late last year are due out soon. The Cook Islands Herald newspaper has already reported another drop in the number of permanently resident Cook Islanders in the 15 islands.

Some sources say they could number as low as 12,000, once all visitors and non-permanent residents are taken out of the figures. The actual census figures are awaited with interest.

But, as a result of the continuing depopulation, local employers wanting to develop their businesses and in turn the economy are now looking for two levels of foreign workers.

They want not only skilled people to overcome skills shortages caused by migration to New Zealand and Australia. They also seek to bring in more foreigners to do menial work some Cook Islanders who remain in the islands show little interest in toiling at. This includes not only service jobs in the growing and economically vital tourism industry but also the wealthier Cook Islanders seeking housekeepers and nannies for their homes.

Fiji, linked by a direct three-and-a-half hours Air New Zealand flight from Nadi to Rarotonga, has a large and inexpensive pool of willing English-speaking labour. It has become the main recruiting place for Cook Islands employers.

Fiji workers are attracted by both the work opportunities and Rarotonga’s standard of living, peace and stability. The local Fiji community association believes there could now be more than 300 Fiji workers in Rarotonga. That’s a very visible presence on an island which is just a 32-kilometre drive right round.

Some unconfirmed estimates put the resident Fiji population at closer to 500. Most are indigenous Fijians but there are people from all of multiracial Fiji’s ethnic groups.

However, while local employers see importing such workers as part of a solution to their needs, other Cook Islanders worry about the influx of foreigners, especially the numbers from Fiji. Some look at all the Fijians on Rarotonga and fear the special character of the Cook Islands will become submerged. Some Cook Islanders also fear some of the problems Fiji has had could be brought to their islands.

There have also been disputed claims that Fiji people have been setting up businesses in competition with locals. These claims actually appear to relate to the growing Filipino community, who keep a much lower profile than the Fijians.

Rasmussen’s first meeting was with the Fiji community. There he heard their side of the story. It came from some 150 workers who turned up to meet the minister. They gathered in an Avarua Assembly of God hall where it holds a well attended weekly non-denominational Fijian-language church service.

Rasmussen heard how immigration officers only issue them one-year work permits, costing employers NZ$750 for each, to enter the country and start work. These can then be difficult to get renewed, he was told. Fiji workers were also discouraged from bringing spouses or families to Rarotonga.

Rasmussen heard allegations that immigration officers discriminate against Fijians both in their attitude and their interpretation of the policy. One of the examples given was Fijian visitors trying to follow the law properly and get an extension to a month-long visitor’s permit. Their applications were rudely refused, Rasmussen was told. But those by European people from other countries were allowed.

Some employers of Fiji people also came to the meeting with their workers. They wanted to tell Rasmussen why they needed Fiji workers and of the frustrations they have dealing with immigration officers. One employer told how she had a good worker from Fiji and wanted to bring in more because she could not find such workers locally. But she said an immigration officer told her she had to recruit workers from the outer islands of the Cooks, instead.

She said after a three-month effort she was unable to find anyone suitable from the outer islands. Immigration officers should know people from the outer islands who are leaving their islands to work will go to New Zealand or Australia, not Rarotonga, she added.