Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse is going to investigate job ads published this week requiring Nelson-based fishing boat crew to speak Russian.
Speaking on TV3's "The Nation" Mr Woodhouse said he would need to be convinced that the ad requirement to speak Russian was "absolutely necessary".
"They would need to demonstrate that that was a requirement of the job before Immigration New Zealand would give approval for that visa," he said.
He said that many of the fishing vessels working in our waters would be flagged in foreign countries and would have hazard notices and health and safety requirements written in foreign languages.
"So it would be necessary to have some people on the boat that had fluency in those languages, "he said.
"But I would be very interested to know how many would be required to have that. "
Mr Woodhouse said one of the reasons why large number of immigrants were also being employed in agricultural contracting industries was that there were barriers to employing young New Zealanders.
These included skills and the mobility of applicants.
"We certainly have an issue I think with drug and alcohol impeding young New Zealanders getting into work here, and that's what employers are telling us. So we're trying to remove those barriers."
But the Minister could not say how many of the 17,000 number of migrants expected to be needed for the Christchurch rebuild would come from China under the joint venture between Arrow and a Chinese state construction company announced this week.
"I have no doubt that there will be a significant cohort of overseas workers to assist with the Canterbury rebuild."
NBR staff
Sun, 21 Jul 2013
Sun, 21 Jul 2013
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Immigration Minister to investigate job ads
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