In the past couple of years, various privacy breaches by New Zealand immigration has come forward. If we see the figures for the last year, there were 170 occasions where NZ immigration performed a privacy breach in one or another form.

This time a couple from Columbia has shown their concern about personal information safety in the hands of immigration officials. Leanne Healey’s partner is processing the visa application of his spouse. Lately, he received an email from the immigration authorities containing the personal details of another applicant from South Korea.

The couple was expecting news from the immigration as it has been months. Their hopes shattered when they found a wrong email. However, it aroused a severe concern of a privacy breach of personal details of an individual applying for an NZ visa.

Whenever a person applies for a visa, all sensitive information like bank details, address, contact details, etc. stay with the immigration authorities. Therefore, such a careless incidence of forwarding the details to wrong emails bring a fear of breaches. The couple demanded strict action against this incidence.

The couple is not only worried about the security breach, but they also showed their distress against visa authorities for being partial with Columbia. According to them, the relations between South Korea and New Zealand are good, so the immigration officials give them preference over Columbians.

As per the couple, both visa applications contain the same date of submission. Therefore, the official might be checking them simultaneously and got confused with the email address. And, if it is the scenario, the authorities have been partial to their nationality by assigning visa officers to South Korea earlier than Columbia.

The immigration of New Zealand has apologized for this incidence, saying there were more than a million visas that they have processed from 2018 through 2019. A spokesperson from OPC said, from December 2020, there will be a strict action taken against security breaches that reach certain harm to an individual. The guidelines for this new Privacy act have been prepared by MBIE, under the guidance of OPC.

What initially started as a part of the globalization process, immigration today has become quite a difficult thing to accomplish. Immigrants usually face a number of issues while migrating from one country to another and unlike the liberal policies of the past, today all the nations have very strict immigration mechanisms in place to thwart any attempt of illegal migration. The scenario of immigration today has drastically changed, which mandate the immigrants to be more aware and knowledgeable about the rules and regulations of the host countries.

Complexity of Immigration Process

The immigration process today has become much more complicated than before. There are a number of reasons behind it, but the most prominent ones include a large exodus of people from the underdeveloped economies, growing number of conflict zones, extremely restrictive immigration system, static quotas on immigration, changing geopolitical realities and their direct impact on the immigration process, and protectionist policies adopted by all the developed nations across the globe.

It is also important to note that one single most crucial reason behind the complexity of the immigration process is the rising population around the globe. The phenomenon of economic prosperity, which has remained limited only to the developed nations for long, is also acting as an attractive factor for immigrants to apply for Visa in more prosperous countries.

We should also see the other aspect of the issue and become cognizant of critical challenges faced by the immigrants: language barriers, difficulty in getting visas and alluding permanent residency status, cultural differences, raising children, and securing a good job in the host country. While technical persons and white-collar employees are quite good at understanding and speaking the language of the host country, blue-collar workers and laborers might face this issue prominently.

Recent Examples

Many countries today are grappled with the problem of immigration. The most recent example is the ongoing conflict in Syria, which has led to the mass exodus of people to Turkey and the European Union. The situation is terrible and although it cannot be placed as a typical case of the immigration problem, it can be easily classified as a humanitarian issue related to the refugees and their right to live.

Developed countries like the USA and UK are facing difficulties in immigration thanks to their protectionist policies. Other nations in the European Union like France, Germany, etc., might not have very strict rules related to the immigration as of now but there is no denying in the fact that these countries are also facing the heat of large influx of immigrants that is causing pressure to their overall administrative and social security system.

Ways to Handle Immigration Issues

Experts and immigration analysts believe that economic disparity is the primary reason behind the immigration of a large number of people from one country to another. If underdeveloped and developing Nations also start making good progress on various economic indicators, the number of people who want to move out of these nations will automatically come down. It is, therefore, in the interest of the whole world that all countries become part of economic prosperity and provide a better life to their citizens. Adopting a more progressive and open visa policy which can also help people to immigrate without any complication; however, doing it might be difficult in today’s context where nations are becoming more protectionist and inward-looking in their approach to tackling economic slowdown.

Conclusion

The issue of immigration is a very important topic and requires a comprehensive consultation from all the stakeholders involved in the ecosystem. The crucial inputs from the United Nations, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund on various immigration policies can pave the way for the unified immigration process, but building and reaching a consensus on this front seems to be a far-fetched dream, at least for now.