Dawn Chorus: Migration scams emerge as migration surges

‘High trust’ Accredited Employer Work Visa scheme used to sell suggestions of residency and bring in hundreds of migrants from China and South America, who are sacked within days

Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The Kākā

TL;DR: There was a time New Zealand, or at least its former PM John Key, aspired to become the Switzerland of the South Pacific, providing high-value financial services to the world’s richest families.

Instead, we’ve become a version of the Dubai of the South Pacific, allowing fraudulent agents and fly-by-night firms to bring in desperate and poor workers with suggestions of high-paid jobs and residency, only to pull the rug out from under their feet and leaving them indebted and even more desperate.

This is how our churn and burn economy has learned to operate. See more below the paywall fold.