Immigration New Zealand claim that listeners of Indian radio Station are not New Zealanders.

Immigration New Zealand staff have made the astonishing claim that New Zealanders are unlikely to listen to Indian Radio Stations; a claim which is likely to be very suprising to the more than 155,000 New Zealanders of Indian descent living in this country, many of whom were born and have grown up here.

Sri Lankan born, New Zealand Immigration Lawyer Ramya Sathiyanathan was shocked to be told by Immigration New Zealand that the listeners of New Zealand’s number 1 Hindi language radio station, Radio Tarana, are unlikely to be New Zealanders.

The Immigration New Zealand employee, in a letter raising concerns about an applicant’s visa application stated that “New Zealand citizens/residents are unlikely to listen to an Indian Radio Station”, confirming her assumption regarding the nationality of the approximate 155,000 persons of Indian origin in New Zealand.

Radio Tarana, with more than 80,000 listeners is a Hindi language radio station appealing to many New Zealanders of Indian origin. A large number of whom are New Zealand citizens or Residents.

The implications are extremely serious in that it reflects an attitude within Immigration New Zealand that only white English speakers can be New Zealanders.

Television New Zealand suspended broadcaster Paul Henry for his remarks regarding our then Governor General, Anand Satyanand, not looking like a real New Zealander but now the same comments are coming from government employees whose job it is to determine who can stay and work in New Zealand.

Alastair McClymont, Ms Sathiyanathan’s employer at McClymont & Associates, a specialist Immigration Law firm in Auckland said today that “the immigration officers comments confirmed what we had often suspected about racial bias within Immigration New Zealand, but what shocked us the most was that an officer actually thought it appropriate to put the comments in writing to our client.”

Mr McClymont stated that Immigration New Zealand management were immediately made aware of the issue, and whilst removing the officer from further work on the application they have taken no steps to address the comments made by the officer, thereby tacitly supporting her assumption.

In the meantime, Ms Sathiyanathan has submitted a complaint to the Race Relations Conciliator.

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