A Dunedin MP says plans to cut staff bridging the gap between ethnic communities and the government are worrying.
The Ministry for Ethnic Communities is consulting about reducing 14% of its staff which could mean two Dunedin staff lose their jobs.
Taieri MP Ingrid Leary said the staff helped ethnic communities receive the support they needed.
"We must remember that a lot of these people come from societies where the government plays quite a different role and cannot be trusted at all.
"They’ve got to learn to have a new relationship with the government agencies and the Ministry of Ethnic Communities helped foster that."
She said former refugees from Syria and Afghanistan as well as a few dozen former Ukrainian citizens needed support transitioning from visitor status to residence in Dunedin.
There were also people from Myanmar, Palestine, Iraq and other hot spots who had contributed enormously to the region and who were dealing with trauma and uncertainty about family members abroad, she said.
Ms Leary had been working on an event with the Chamber of Commerce and the ministry to discuss unconscious bias in recruitment.
"Sometimes people wouldn’t get interviewed because they had a foreign surname or an accent."
She said the event would help members of the ethnic community meet employers and break those biases.
However, without the help of the ministry, an event like that would not be possible, Ms Leary said.
