New Zealand has recently offered overseas nurses and midwives an immediate pathway to residency, amid country’s bid to address shortage of medical staff.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said changes to the immigration system meant those eligible can get fast-tracked residency. In this regard, specialist doctors have also been added to New Zealand’s ‘Green List’, which allows skilled workers in hard-to-fill roles to secure residency.
According to the New Zealand Nurses Organisation, the country needs around 4,000 more nurses while earlier this year, health minister Andrew Little stated that the country needed hundreds of mental health nurses alone.
New Zealand fully opened its borders in August, uplifting travel restrictions imposed to battle Covid-19. The premier Ms Ardern told reporters that the message to nurses everywhere now is that New Zealand is the ‘best place to live, work and play’.
“We need to be as competitive as we can be,” she said and negated the notion that her government had been slow to address shortfalls.
On the other hand, the immigration settings reforms drew criticism from the opposition, who said the move should have come sooner.
“The government’s major backdown on giving migrant nurses a direct pathway to residence should have happened a year ago,” expressed National Party’s immigration spokeswoman Erica Stanford.
Ten additional professions have also been added to the Green List, including roles across the healthcare, education and construction sectors to help boost the country’s workforce.
With a total population of around 5 million, the unemployment rate in New Zealand stands at 3.3 per cent.
