Real Life

Why blaming immigrants for New Zealand’s problems is not the answer

NEXT Sub-Editor Maria Hoyle takes aim at Winston Peters' latest migration rant.
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New Zealand Flag

I just listened to a radio interview with NZ First’s Winston Peters in which he railed against immigration.

You might agree that it makes no sense to welcome in people who are a dab hand at julienning carrots but pretty useless in the post-quake rebuild. But here’s the thing. Peters was happy about immigration by the Scottish, the Dutch, the Irish and so forth who, according to him, preserve their traditions but also sign up to Kiwi values, respect our flag and that type of fine upstanding carry-on.

And I couldn’t help thinking… What. The. Hell. Radio NZ’s Susie Ferguson was clearly thinking the same, and asked, “so which cultures are you talking about”? Peters dodged, he fudged, he mumbled darkly. When pressed by the tenacious Ferguson he immediately referred to the imam who recently made anti-Jewish comments at an Auckland mosque. A-ha. So it’s Muslims you have a problem with, said Ferguson. No, no retorted Peters. Just Islamic extremists. Oh no he didn’t.

So let’s just all chill for a moment, and look at the facts. First, it was ‘one of our own people’ – a certain Brian Tamaki – who recently indulged in some hate speech of his own. Tamaki isn’t a Muslim, nor an immigrant, but a poisonous spouter of bigoted nonsense, i.e. blaming gays for the recent earthquakes. And yet his church enjoys tax-free status.

Now I’m not a fan of anti-Jewish sentiment, clearly, and I’m not defending any type of hate speech from any religion whatsoever. And to be fair to Peters, he did clarify that he didn’t mean all Muslims; just the extremists. But still. He singled out Islam. And in an age where the European far right is swelling on the back of anti-Muslim sentiment, where the future president of the US is talking about building walls to keep foreigners out, where a Muslim girl in the US gets shoved off a pavement walking to school during the post-Trump hysteria, Peters’ comments are highly irresponsible.

Yes, we have a housing crisis (but couldn’t this and previous governments have planned for this, investing in affordable housing and building more state houses rather than selling them off in their hundreds?). Yes we have a lack of infrastructure. Yes we need more skilled workers. But why don’t we address those issues like the grownup nation that we are supposed to be and stop pointing the finger at immigrants, who were not responsible for creating any of these problems – least of all the widening divide between rich and poor? Did immigrants introduce zero hour contracts? Did immigrants create a situation where 10% of Kiwis own 60% of the nation’s wealth? Did immigrants create our housing crisis?

Winston Peters thinks Immigrants to NZ should ‘fit in.’

To target immigrants is not only divisive, it lets our elected leaders off the hook. And why oh why is John Key still blathering on about tax cuts when the money would be far better spent on affordable housing projects, apprenticeship schemes for our young jobless (and yes, even helping immigrants acquire the skills the nation needs), funding the resurrection of the areas affected by quakes…

If the ‘values’ Winston wants us to sign up to include turning away those seeking a better life for their families (including refugees fleeing war zones), encouraging division and mistrust rather than working together to build a strong, united, multi-cultural NZ, well I’m sorry. That’s a flag I would never salute.

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