Migrants will soon largely pay for children to learn English

A large chunk of much-needed money to help children for whom English is a second language will soon largely be paid for by migrants themselves — through a sharp rise in immigration fees.

Immigration Minister Erica Stanford this month announced a rise in immigration fees and levies from October.

Figures from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), which oversees the immigration department, show the increase will help reduce Crown costs of $108.3 million annually.

Close to half — $50.3 million — will go towards covering 80 per cent of the English for Speakers of Other Languages programme (ESOL). The remainder of the $62.9 million that the school programme costs each year will still be paid for by the Crown.

Stanford said the rise in fees are part of the Government's plans to create a "user-pays" immigration system to make it more sustainable.

"Until now, our immigration system has been heavily subsidised by taxpayers. The changes we're making are shifting the cost to those benefiting from the system."

Stanford told 1News, in her other role as Education Minister, she's being told daily about the influx of children needing English language assistance.

"It's only fair that we use fees and levies from the immigration fund."

Auckland's Forrest Hill School is one of those that's had a big rise in the number of enrolments from children all around the world — with more than 20 ethnicities represented.

ESOL teacher Marshia Geminiano said her classes have got bigger, to the point she's not always able to accommodate all of those who need access to her lessons.

"We have to cap the amount of children we have in the classroom, so that disadvantages other children that need support."

Deputy principal Angela White said the school is able to apply for ESOL funding for a set amount of students two times a year — but said their numbers grow between the two intakes.

"They really do make our school a special place, with the diverse nature of our students."

But White said to ensure their success in the mainstream setting there is a need for a more flexible funding process and teacher training resources dedicated to those learning a second language.

Those in the immigration sector acknowledge the value of ESOL and the need for it to be supported — but have questions about whether that validates the sharp rise in fees.

Accent Health Recruitment's Prudence Thompson said not all who come through the country's borders to live and work here require that English support.

"I think there's a little bit of injustice there to be honest," she said. "I think it's great to support ESOL, but I don't think it's fair some of our migrants from English speaking countries pay for that."

She said while many in the health sector will be able to afford the additional costs, it's still a significant rise for many workers, and potential employers.

"Employers only have a finite amount of money they can spend on relocation.

"If they want to offer a radiologist $20,000 to come out, half of that will be taken up in visas, and the other half in flights."

Aims Global Immigration's Arunima Dhingra wants to see the money invested in the system to ensure it's fit for purpose.

"We understood when the Government came into power, it wanted to make a self-funded system, where previously it wasn't the case ... but what we are now reading is that part of that might go into the tax relief fund, so there's a bit of confusion around if it's going to make immigration self-funded, or if it's going somewhere else."

Stanford refuted that any of the money collected through Government levies is surplus to requirements.

"It is very untrue that we are collecting more money than we need, that we're making a profit out of this," she said. "It is true that the immigration system needs significant upgrading of our IT infrastructure in order to process visa applications at pace and we need to invest in that."

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