It all started over a tightening up of how partnership visas are managed when it involves arranged marriages.
It seems that immigration officials may have been seen to be taking too soft a line on it and somebody senior suggested they need to tighten up and adhere to the letter of the law. If you want to bring a partner here you have to have lived together for a year. With arranged marriages and cultural differences at play, that will obviously lead to an immigration impasse.
The result has been some pretty annoyed people in the Indian community and understandably so, however, it’s not helpful to become aggressive, rude or demanding.
Shane Jones (dislikeable as he sometimes might well be) was well within his rights to suggest a toning down of the rhetoric – if only he’d stuck to that point:
“I would just say to the activists from the Indian community, tame down your rhetoric, you have no legitimate expectations in my view to bring your whole village to New Zealand and if you don’t like it and you’re threatening to go home – catch the next flight home.”
It doesn’t help the flow of courteous discussion to throw in a line like “you have no legitimate expectations in my view to bring your whole village to New Zealand”. Is there somebody on record somewhere proposing to do so? If not, this is at best taking liberties with the truth and stirring up discontent. He’s riled the Indian community and probably a significant number of other kiwis too.
Mr Jones is too often the embodiment of taking his foot out of his mouth only for the purpose of putting the other one in.
The thing is that the rules apply to everybody and Indian cultural differences don’t automatically mean you’re exempt. So if you’re an angry Indian, take a few deep breaths and remember that kiwis are naturally fair-minded, reasonable people and ultimately, it might well be that you will get some kind of dispensation. Be patient.
Meanwhile, I can’t help wondering if New Zealanders generally favour these kinds of comments from Shane Jones. If someone who has come from somewhere else to make this their home questions the way we manage something, is it ok for a senior government minister to tell them if they don’t like it to go back to where they came from?
Perhaps he should take a feather from “leader’s” cap and understand that maybe it’s something we need to have a conversation about.