pn826. Citizenship and Overstaying: Why apologize for the Dawn Raids while continuing to discriminate against Pacific Islanders?

Big fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite them, and little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum. 

There was a time not too long ago when, if you were born in the "right" country, you did not need to be a NZ citizen to enjoy all the privileges of citizenship.  My Mother was one example.  Born in England she never applied for NZ citizenship but she went through life with all its privileges including superannuation.

There was also a time not too long ago, before 2006, when anyone born in NZ was a New Zealand citizen.  But not now. 

A child born in NZ is no longer automatically a New Zealander.  They can only be a New Zealander if one or more parent has citizenship or is a permanent resident even if they were born on the steps of parliament in view of all its members.

This sorry state of affairs leaves the children of an estimated 10-14,000 overstayers and people without a permanent residence, most of them from  Samoa, Tuvalu, Tonga and Vanuatu,  virtually homeless and with uncertain futures.   The stresses experienced in many homes can be seen in this story from 1News. (But this does not apply to Cook Islanders, Niueans and Tokelauans because their islands are territorially part of Godszone and they are born New Zealanders.)

Today,  you can only be a NZ citizen, 1) by birth (if your parents are not overstayers); 2) by descent, if you were born outside NZ (and if your parents are not overstayers) or 3) by grant, i.e., you successfully applied for citizenship. (See the exact requirements here.)

It seems to me ironic (hence the quote at the beginning of this article)  that only four months ago, on 1 August, Jacinda Adern offered a formal and unreserved apology for the Dawn Raids which plagued NZ's Pacific Island communities from the mid 1970s to the early 1980s.  

These operations involved special police squads conducting raids on the homes and workplaces of overstayers throughout New Zealand usually at dawn. It is now admitted that the raids were severe with harsh verbal and physical treatment, which gave rise to the term the “Dawn Raids”.

“Today," said our Prime Minister,  "I offered, on behalf of the Government, a formal and unreserved apology to Pacific communities for the discriminatory implementation of immigration laws that led to the Dawn Raids.” (For her full speech,  click here.)

 In my view, it is inconsistent if not hypocritical to apologize for the Dawn Raids while still practising unfair and discriminatory acts against our Pacific overstayers.  One cannot overlook the fact, for example, that  86% of overstayer prosecutions involve Pacific Islanders compared with only 5% of overstayers from UK and the USA. What use is an apology, Jacinda,  if we repeat the offence in another guise?

Now, ironically, overstayers are threatening our Covid response.  Many are holding back from being vaccinated because it could lead to their detention and expulsion. One wit says if we traded visas for vax more overstayers would "come out of the woodwork" while some lawyers are calling for more transparency on the visa issue.

But much more is needed than transparency. It is time to resolve the whole situation by granting long-term or permanent residence to all otherwise law-abiding adult overstayers, and —most importantly— granting citizenship to their children born in New Zealand.

-- ACW

As an aside, we criticize the Australians for forcibly repatriating NZ-born children of NZ criminals.   But at least they recognize the children's birthplace and citizenship.