If you’ve followed me for a while, you’ll know my go-to line on immigration: we need more nurses and doctors, not more Uber drivers and curry chefs. But after watching last week’s mega-strike protests, I’m starting to think we’re importing the wrong kind of “skilled” workers altogether.
The NZ Herald interviewed a nurse named Shini Kallumkathuraoliyl. I could barely understand anything of what she said. I caught the word “Starship,” and judging by her scrubs, she likely works at Starship Hospital. This isn’t personal, but her English was appalling. If I, sitting at home, couldn’t make sense of her, how on earth would a sick child in her care? How would parents feel being handed medical advice they can’t even decipher?
This is a failure of Immigration New Zealand. Nursing is on the Green List, supposedly a “highly skilled” category that gives fast-track residency. But where’s the skill if patients can’t understand a word being said to them? Communication isn’t optional in healthcare, it’s as critical as knowing how to use a defibrillator. Immigration NZ keeps waving people through as if ticking a form is all that matters.
I’ve learned a bit of Spanish myself, living with a South American partner and studying on Duolingo every day. Even after a year of immersion, I was barely competent. If I turned up in Colombia asking for a job as a nurse, they’d laugh me out of the country. So why are we accepting that level of broken English here in one of our most vital professions?
