Pregnant pianist booted out of NZ
New immigration rules mean teacher no longer earns enough to stay – despite her baby being a Kiwi. By James Pasley.
A highly-skilled pregnant piano teacher may have to leave New Zealand because she doesn’t earn enough money.
Saber Xie, 26, was seven months pregnant with her partner Jeff McDonald, 36, when the government announced changes to immigration requirements in April.
Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse said migrants earning less than the median New Zealand income of $49,000 would not be classified as highly skilled, regardless of what industry they worked in.
Xie, an accomplished piano player from China has been in New Zealand since 2013 and on a skilled work visa since last year.
She taught students all levels of piano across Auckland but earned only about $500 a week which was nowhere near the government’s new threshold.
She said her visa would expire in March despite the fact her baby would be a New Zealand citizen. Then she would be required to leave the country.
If the requirements hadn’t changed, she would have been able to apply for NZ citizenship in the middle of next year.
‘‘At this point either she has More online Immigration crackdown is rude welcome to Fortress NZ Alison Mau: Politicians chuck Zippo on immigration wood pile to take her Kiwi son to China and raise it without his dad, or go back and leave him with me,’’ McDonald said. ‘‘We want to raise our son in a loving home. We want to look for any possible way we can to be a family.’’
McDonald can’t sponsor Xie as his partner either because he has already sponsored two other partners, which is the limit one person can sponsor.
Immigrant specialist David Cooper said ministerial intervention was ‘‘the only way forward for them’’ but he’d seen many similar cases denied.
Xie started studying piano when she was six and came to New Zealand in 2013 to further her studies. In 2015, she graduated with a postgraduate diploma in piano performance from the University of Auckland.
For a year after that, she stayed in New Zealand on an open work visa.
In 2016, she started working at Able Music, the largest music teaching academy in Auckland, which sponsored her for two years ending in March next year.
Xie asked her employer for a higher hourly rate or for more hours, but it wasn’t able to provide her with enough to get her over the threshold.
The pair live in an apartment above McDonald’s cafe Craft Kitchen in Ponsonby with a baby grand piano.
‘‘We’re being brave, no one’s going to take my child’s mother away,’’ McDonald said.
They’re expecting their baby boy any day. ON Monday, Labour leader Andrew Little will announce a crack down on immigration as an election policy, closing the doors to about 50,000 migrants focusing on student visas and those with low-skill occupations.
The number of work visas issued has grown from 37,190 in 2000 to 192,688 in 2016, according to new book Fair Boarders? Migration Policy in the Twenty-First Century.
Statistics from Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment said 31,766 migrants with essential skills were issued work visas in 2015 and 2016.
Labour’s immigration spokesman Iain Lees-Galloway said there needed to be a breather while Auckland caught up with infrastructure to support its growth and part of the proposed policy will be fast tracked visas for people with ‘‘exceptional skills’’.
There will also be a plan to encourage immigration to regions that are grappling with declining populations and skills shortages. ‘‘We think we can achieve a number in the tens of thousands by focusing on a small number of visas and doing it in a way which is going to ensure employers get the skills and labour they need.’’