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Yael Shochat outside Ima Cuisine with some of her staff members (Photo: Supplied)
Yael Shochat outside Ima Cuisine with some of her staff members (Photo: Supplied)

KaiSeptember 26, 2019

A restaurant owner on how immigration changes will hurt her industry

Guest writer
Yael Shochat outside Ima Cuisine with some of her staff members (Photo: Supplied)
Yael Shochat outside Ima Cuisine with some of her staff members (Photo: Supplied)

Two years on from her open letter to Andrew Little on his vow to slash immigration numbers, Israeli-born Yael Shochat, who owns Ima Cuisine in Auckland, writes about the harm the changes to the work-to-residence visa will do to the hospitality industry.

Last week I, like many who employ immigrants, received an email from Immigration NZ that completely floored me. Applying for work visas has already been an uphill battle, and the route to residence is very hard, but by March next year we will be going through a change to our immigration laws that will essentially close the route to residence for the majority of much-needed migrant employees, and definitely anyone working in hospitality.

From 2020, anyone looking to a pathway for residence will have to be on a “high skill” rate. According to Immigration NZ, that means new migrants will need to be in a pay bracket of over $104,000 a year. Everyone under that pay grade is considered low skill and can apply only for a temporary work visa. This will last a year, can be renewed twice, and that’s it – then you have to go home and can’t reapply for a year. The message from the government is clear – you can only be one of us if you are in the top percentile of earners. This bracket of pay is 200% above the median wage and takes the whole of my industry out of the work-to-residence route. (See a note from the Restaurant Association of NZ at the bottom of this piece regarding the points made in this paragraph)  

I first wrote an open letter to the Labour Party in 2017 outlining my concern over their electoral campaigns which had an aim of restricting immigration. It seems I’m picking up from where I left off, except this time more furious, hurt and desperate than before.

I am a Labour supporter, in spite of their terrible immigration policy, and while being aware of the anti-immigration sentiment, I still feel hurt and somewhat betrayed. The values that centre that party; of equality, of ending child poverty and giving everyone a fair chance of living a good life, are important to me. This elitist approach towards who we allow to become part of us does not sit well with those values of caring. 

Immigration NZ has pushed through this policy under the false guise of ending migrant exploitation and ensuring everyone gets fair pay. I am sorry, but telling people that we need you to work now but we will never let you stay and build a future here, because you do the so-called “menial work” of our society, is a form of exploitation. 

The immigrant story is one of great sacrifice, of hard work if it means our children can have a better life than us. Yes, there are definitely restaurants and other small businesses out there who under-pay and over-work their immigrant staff, and of course this is not right, and is illegal. By all means, please go after them and root this abhorrent activity out. Don’t let a criminal bunch paint us all in the same brush. The restaurant business is a tough one and most restaurant owners are working hard shoulder-to-shoulder with their employees, and I am definitely one of them.

YAEL SHOCHAT OUTSIDE HER FORT ST RESTAURANT, IMA CUISINE. PHOTO: SIMON WILSON

But who is going to pay $104K a year to bring much-needed labour to this country? Not one person in my industry is paid that much; not the manager, not the head chef, not anyone. At the end of the day I take home only a pitiful amount and rely on my partner’s support so I can pay my staff well. Despite all this, I will still lose them under this new law. And what about the shortage of nurses? Of teachers? Of care workers for our ageing population? And even if I could pay my head chefs this much, is the chef de partie, the commis chef or dishwasher not worthy of a pathway to residence? They are part of my team, part of my family, they are just as important as the next worker. They are not temporary or disposable, and yes they would like to stay, to continue to work hard, pay their taxes and be part of the community.

When the day comes and they have to leave, will there be others willing to work here with no promise of a future? I don’t think so.

I see what you want with this law; Trump-style closed borders wherein only rich, white immigrants like James Cameron can have a slice of the Kiwi dream. Well let me tell you, these “highly skilled” migrants ain’t going to cook you a meal or help your grandma get out of bed. Sure they will pay more tax while we exploit an underclass of temporary migrant workers, forcing them to “go home” after three years. Our immigration policy is looking more like that of Saudi Arabia, that is if people bother to come here at all. If immigrants have no future here, our country will be starved of labour. 

Our restaurant industry is considered low-skill and we are all relatively low-paid. How I wish it wasn’t! It would be wonderful to be able to attract high-calibre Kiwis who could see that this is a job worth doing. Serving 100 people a night with care and precision is no mean feat. Our jobs require skill; they are jobs worth doing. Where do you want to celebrate your special moments, your birthday, anniversary, your achievements? When you go to a restaurant, do you want good food and service? And let’s say you wanted “non-Kiwi” (whatever the hell that means) food? You need immigrants for that, unless you want to go back to “Kiwi” tea rooms. 

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    Immigrants are people who have made a huge effort to improve their future. They are the hardest working, their children are high achievers at school and are more likely to go on to tertiary education. They are not taking your jobs, they are taking a hit and doing the jobs you don’t want to do. They work hard, they pay their taxes, stay out of trouble and their children do well. By shifting poorer, most likely browner, immigrants away from the pathway of residence and citizenship, you are not only further starving our economy and the diversity of our country, you are reasserting the fact that anyone who is not a New Zealander is not “us” at all.

    *Since this piece was published, the Restaurant Association NZ has contacted The Spinoff to clarify some points. The $104,000 salary mentioned relates only to the “highly paid pathway” visa category. The skilled migrant visa is another option for those working in the hospitality industry if they are paid the median wage or above (currently $25 per hour or $52,000 a year) and their occupation is defined as skill level 1, 2 or 3 by Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO). Chefs, for example, are defined as skill level 2. If the job is defined as skill level 4 or 5, such as waiters, kitchenhands, baristas and bartenders, they must be paid at least $37.50 per hour to qualify under the skilled migrant category. 

    *Another option is the temporary work visa. For jobs paid above the median wage ($25 per hour), the requirement to undertake a labour market test will be removed for employers in the regions. All lower-paid jobs will be required to pass a labour market test, which includes a requirement for the employer to advertise the job with pay rates and to check with the Ministry of Social Development whether they have any clients who are considered suitable, available and trainable that can be matched to the job. In the cities, workers will be able to be granted a maximum of three one-year visas, after which they would need to leave the country for at least 12 months. In regions with fewer New Zealanders available to work, visas of three years in duration will be granted. 

    Keep going!
    Sarah Smuts-Kennedy at the OMG Organic Market Garden on Symonds St, where a new compost hub has launched (Photos: Supplied/Alice Neville)
    Sarah Smuts-Kennedy at the OMG Organic Market Garden on Symonds St, where a new compost hub has launched (Photos: Supplied/Alice Neville)

    KaiSeptember 24, 2019

    Turning waste into resource: Auckland city’s new living compost hub

    Deputy editor
    Sarah Smuts-Kennedy at the OMG Organic Market Garden on Symonds St, where a new compost hub has launched (Photos: Supplied/Alice Neville)
    Sarah Smuts-Kennedy at the OMG Organic Market Garden on Symonds St, where a new compost hub has launched (Photos: Supplied/Alice Neville)

    Transforming food scraps into a nutrient-rich climate-change fighter is dependent on keeping it in the neighbourhood, according to the people behind a new composting initiative. 

    It’s sweet to chuck this apple core under that bush over there, right? It’ll return to the earth and nourish the soil… surely?

    Sorry, but that’s not how compost works – to get nutrient-rich, “living” compost, a unique set of circumstances is needed to allow microorganisms to thrive. It’s not hard to learn how to do it, but it is a skill – a skill everyone used to have.

    “There’s been so much knowledge lost over the last 150 years,” says Sarah Smuts-Kennedy. “There’s a massive knowledge gap, which is why our project looks at ways for people to begin their journey relearning and having fun. It’s really easy to become an expert.”

    Smuts-Kennedy recently launched Auckland’s first central government-funded community compost hub at the OMG Organic Market Garden on Symonds St, which is part of her For the Love of Bees project.

    The OMG Organic Market Garden (Photo: Alice Neville)

    Composting, as Georgia Merton wrote in The Spinoff earlier this year, is more than just about growing your own food – it’s a key tool in the fight against climate change. Not only does composting divert waste from landfill – where it would break down without oxygen, producing methane – it also supports photosynthesis, which removes carbon from the atmosphere. Currently about half of what Auckland sends to landfill could be composted.

    But, says Smuts-Kennedy, “not all compost is the same”. 

    “What we say to people is that if it doesn’t have a worm in it, it’s not living compost. We’re trying to train people – the organic matter’s not the critical part, it’s the microbiology that your plant requires. It’s the pooing and weeing of microbes that enables your plants to grow so they’re pest-resistant and strong. We need to be teaching people how to make really good-quality living compost.”

    For the Love of Bees and composting company New Zealand Box were recently jointly awarded $50,000 from the Ministry for the Environment’s Waste Minimisation Fund to establish a compost hub at OMG. Comprising six compost boxes, it will take food scraps – or food resources, as Smuts-Kennedy says is a more apt description – from local residents and businesses, aiming to divert 20 tonnes from landfill over the next 12 months (and at the same time producing nutrient-dense food that those very residents and businesses can buy back). 

    Rory from Kaicycle Wellington with Tim and Richard from NZ Box in front of the compost boxes at OMG (Photo: Supplied)

    Collaboration is key: in establishing the hub, the OMG team worked with experts in the field such as the Compost Collective, and the hub will now act as a teaching centre and a place to collect data to enable other compost hubs to be set up – the next one will be in the Viaduct. 

    Earlier this year Smuts-Kennedy launched the Urban Farmers Alliance with Christchurch urban farm Cultivate Christchurch and Kaicycle, which runs a compost collection service and urban farm in Wellington. “I knew we needed to start connecting with other communities who were also developing learning in this space,” she says. “We need to have a political voice, but also we need to learn together because even though there’s a will to farm this way, there’s a knowledge gap between being able to do that successfully and meet all the climate change-mitigation measures.”

    The UFA is now mentoring 25 budding urban farmers, with more coming on board all the time, says Smuts-Kennedy, and composting is a big part of it. “You cannot have a climate change-ready urban farm without having a local living compost hub,” she says. 

    Members of the Urban Farmers Alliance meet inside OMG’s greenhouse (Photo: Supplied)

    In recent months, Smuts-Kennedy and her collaborators have been fighting Auckland council’s plan for processing food waste, which they say will take the focus away from local living compost hubs like OMG. The council is investing in an anaerobic digester to process residents’ food waste collected at kerbside, for which $67 will be added to each household’s rates. Tender documents suggest they will be locked into a 20-year contract. (The kerbside collection has recently been delayed until at least 2021.) 

    “It would take only a third of the food scraps that we produce – about 50,000 tonnes – and truck it to a single operator, where it would be put through an anaerobic biodigester that essentially burns off the carbon and produces something very similar to urea, which is the very thing the government is saying to our farmers please stop using,” says Smuts-Kennedy. “What’s frustrating about that is that the very same amount of money – $700 million over 20 years – in a very quick space of time could train an enormous amount of people in communities to start taking those very food scraps and not using trucks.

    “If we as a community are paying for a kerbside collection of our food scraps, we want to insist that it’s supporting local infrastructure, that it’s not being trucked out to be turned into either landfill or urea, that it’s actually being paid for to create this type of infrastructure in our urban spaces.”

    While Smuts-Kennedy and her collaborators have not been able to stop the council investing in the digester, she says the possibility of it being used solely for commercial food waste was raised at a recent meeting.

    “But that then poses the problem of who pays for that biodigester, because it’s not right for ratepayers to pay $67 per household per year to have it processing commercial waste – the commercial sector should pay for it. It wouldn’t be an ideal outcome, but it would be a better outcome.”

    In the meantime, she’s encouraging people to have their say on the council’s Climate Action Framework, submissions for which close on 30 September. A draft submission form is available here, with templates collated from several climate action groups.

    Kai