Source: Radio New Zealand
Green Party MP Ricardo Menéndez March. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The Greens are calling out what they see as a double standard on strict English tests for immigrant bus drivers, but zero language requirements for wealthy migrants.
To get a skilled migrant visa, drivers needed to score at least 6.5 out of nine in the International English Language Testing System.
The government removed English fluency requirements for those investing $5 million to $10 million dollars in New Zealand for an Active Investor Plus Visa, known as the Golden Visa.
MP Ricardo Menéndez March said the English test was onerous and elitist.
“We’re putting countless bus drivers’ livelihoods on the line at the time of the fossil fuel crisis when public transport is more important than ever, and treating these drivers as disposable as opposed to essential,” Menéndez March told Checkpoint
He said the English test included writing an essay under time pressure, and had nothing to do with the work that drivers do.
“The requirements for migrant bus drivers are effectively higher than an international student wanting to go into tertiary education. It makes no sense.”
Menéndez March accepted there needed to be a level of proficiency in English – and said the bus drivers he had spoken to were all able to hold conversations in English.
He said the requirements needed to be lowered, or there would be hundreds of bus drivers with their jobs on the line.
The MP said there needed to be consistency across the board for migrants.
“When you create these onerous requirements for essential workers like migrant bus drivers and have no English test for multi-millionaires, it does smack of double standards.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand