The migrant family
BEING separated from her 8-year-old son Ming for almost half a year due to New Zealand’s Covid-19 border closures was the longest Amy Jin had ever been away from her boy.
The 37-year-old business administrator came to New Zealand as an international student three years ago, and despite being thousands of miles away from her family in Shanghai, Ming was her ‘‘mini family’’ here.
In December 2019, Jin and her son returned to China during the Christmas holidays. While Jin flew back to New Zealand in January to return to work, she left Ming in China so he could spend some more time with the family, not foreseeing Covid-19 would quickly spiral out of control and lead to border closures across the world.
On February 3, the New Zealand government closed borders to all foreigners travelling from
China, following the first Covid19 death outside of China. Ming, who was on a student visa, was blocked from entering.
‘‘All of a sudden, he was not here. I felt very helpless. I really wanted to fly back to pick him up, but I also had to consider my own [visa] situation,’’ recalled Jin, who is also a temporary visa holder and was in the process of applying for residency.
For months, Jin could only see her son through video chat.
‘‘I felt so desperate, not knowing when he could come over,’’ she said, and it was not until the end of May that Ming received a travel exemption to return.
‘‘We are lucky,’’ said Jin, knowing that many migrants in similar situations have had exemption applications declined.