Welcome mat

Kevin Menzies (Weekend Herald, July 17) sums up the housing crisis pretty well. However, it is surely exacerbated by the almost uncontrolled and thoughtless level of immigration allowed over recent years which reached its peak under John Key’s National Government.

To allow people to gain citizenship here without being able to speak English, without having a decent job, all while the country suffers under a housing and infrastructure crisis is simply pure madness.

To gain citizenship in the US for example, you must have lived there for a minimum time of five years with a green card before you are eligible to sit a residency test where you are examined on things that America deems important such as the constitution, laws, social aspects and so on. Not like New Zealand, which is open to all and sundry and all largely at the cost of the resident taxpayer. How stupid are our politicians?