To all political parties: end ableist immigration requirements and uphold migrant human rights
Leaders of all political parties in Aotearoa
We want Aotearoa to be a country where all migrants, refugees and our families have equitable chances to feel welcome and valued. A place where immigration policy honours Te Tiriti o waitangi, and no one has to worry about facing disability and health-based immigration discrimination.
But currently, our immigration policy sees disabled migrants and migrants with health conditions as cost burdens rather than valued members of our communities. Ableist Acceptable Standard of Health (ASH) rulees make it incredibly hard for migrants impacted to work, study or settle down in Aotearoa and they violate our human rights.
Join us in calling on all political parties to commit to ending this discrimination. #EndASHNow
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To:
Leaders of all political parties in Aotearoa
From:
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Tēnā koutou political parties in Aotearoa,
We write as a collective of organisations, experts and people directly impacted, who believe that Aotearoa New Zealand's migration laws and policies should not discriminate based on disability and health grounds. In advance of the 2023 Election, we call on all political parties to publicly commit to abolishing the Acceptable Standard of Health (ASH) immigration instructions, and to upholding the human rights of all migrants in law, policy and practice.
The ASH requirements restrict visa eligibility by reducing impacted immigrants, refugees and families to a presumed cost to health and/or education services, rather than seeing them as valued human beings who will contribute to our communities in a diversity of ways. The criteria usually impact disabled people, people with health conditions, people with high BMI, people with gender-related healthcare needs, and families with disabled children in education. Those affected by the requirements consistently say that they are demeaning, highly stressful, costly and that they often derail their lives, sometimes for years.
The ASH requirements are deeply colonial. As the Crown seeks to be a more honourable Tiriti partner, it could embrace Māori legal scholar Khylee Quince's call for a relationship-based immigration system grounded in the values of manaaki (host responsibility and care), utu (reciprocity) and aroha (love and compassion). These foundational values show that there is nothing inherent or necessary about categorising migrants based on economic worth and that more just, Tiriti-based immigration protocols honour human rights by default.
The ASH requirements are out of step with Parliamentary and international recommendations. The cross-Party Education and Workforce Parliamentary Select Committee has recommended they be aligned to a strengths-based approach and that consideration be given to exempting dependent children. Furthermore, the international expert committee which monitors the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has also called for the policy to stop discriminating against disabled people. Multiple Pacific disability and climate organisations have further highlighted that it poses a barrier to people with disabilities seeking to migrate due to facing untenable climate impacts, which is out of step with climate justice.
While the immigration policies of most countries do not discriminate on health and disability cost grounds, Canada used to have a similar policy to Aotearoa's. A comprehensive review of the requirements determined that they were not in line with modern Canadian values of diversity and inclusiveness and the same can be said in Aotearoa. The injustice has attracted considerable media scrutiny including from high profile international outlets like the Guardian and New York Times.
It's time for all political parties to commit to upholding migrant and refugee human rights and abolish the ASH requirements.