A dramatic rise in the number of rest-home caregivers working on temporary visas is raising concerns about disruption to the lives of vulnerable rest-home residents.
Researchers have found that 13 per cent of people hired for rest-home care jobs last year were on temporary visas, up from 1 per cent in 2001.
In Auckland the increase was from 2 per cent to 18 per cent.
Most are on one-year work permits, and could be sent home when the visa expires.
Grey Power aged care spokesman Roy Reid said the trend raised serious concerns for elderly residents.
"When you have got a more settled staff and they are there long-term, the residents get to know and trust those staff, and that makes a big difference to their outlook on life," he said.
A high turnover of short-term migrants also made communication mishaps more likely.
"If there are language difficulties, that makes it very difficult, because an older, frail person is quite often a bit deaf anyway," he said.
The study by independent researchers Paul Callister and Juthika Badkar and Statistics NZ demographer Robert Didham used confidential Statistics NZ data which matches immigration, benefit and tax records.
It shows that the increased use of temporary migrants has been matched by fewer New Zealanders, especially those coming off benefits, obtaining rest-home jobs.
The number of people who had been on benefits in the previous three months fell from 26 per cent of people hired in 2001 to a low of 14 per cent in 2009, mainly because the number of beneficiaries also fell, and rose only slightly to 16 or 17 per cent in each of the past four years despite beneficiary numbers being higher in the recession.
Young workers under age 25 were a constant 17 per cent of people hired. Other New Zealanders increased from 56 per cent of new hires in 2001 to 62 per cent in 2009, but fell to 53 per cent last year as the number of temporary migrants hired increased.
Overall, people born overseas rose from 18 per cent of female rest-home caregivers in 2001 to 31 per cent last year, and 57 per cent in Auckland.
A third of the immigrants (32 per cent) were born in the Pacific Islands, 29 per cent in Asia (half in the Philippines), 18 per cent in Britain and Ireland, and 21 per cent elsewhere.
Aged Care Association chief executive Martin Taylor said rest homes were finding it "extremely difficult" to find suitable New Zealanders despite 134,000 people -- 5.4 per cent of the workforce -- being unemployed.
"When a facility advertises, it gets very few responses. Then it will go to Work and Income and get referrals, but the referrals are often unsuitable to look after the elderly," he said.
"We have to be very careful about the people we train and bring in, and someone who's had issues with the law, or poor working practices, or mental health issues, we have to be very careful about bringing them in.
"So people then turn to filling the gaps with immigrant workers. We find, by and large, immigrant workers are very good, very conscientious."
The association, the Nurses Organisation and the Service and Food Workers Union have all urged the Government to let caregivers qualify for permanent residence after a period working in New Zealand.
But an Immigration NZ spokeswoman said the agency had to ensure migrants did not displace suitable New Zealanders, and it was not considering "any policy change that would provide a pathway to permanent residence and citizenship for caregivers who come to New Zealand on temporary visas".
By Simon Collins of the New Zealand Herald
