Refugees to be settled in Dunedin

Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, November 27th, 2015 - 17 comments
Categories: im/migration, war - Tags: , ,

As reported yesterday:

Dunedin picked as refugee settlement location

Dunedin has been picked as the new settlement location for refugees flocking to New Zealand shores.

Thanks to our government’s constitutional meanness it’s a pretty small “flock”.

A Government assessment – carried out by the New Zealand Refugee Resettlement Strategy Senior Officials’ Group – chose the South Island city as a new settlement location based on its employment, housing, local community and support services.
…
“Dunedin has a strong set of services and is a well-connected city where a number of government agencies have a presence,” [Immigration New Zealand general manager] Mr McGill said.

“There are good employment opportunities in the area, suitable housing is available and there is excellent support from the community.”

The employment opportunities aren’t as good as they used to be, what with the government killing off Hillside Workshops and (soon) Invermay. Medical services are threatened too by the systematic under-funding of the Southern DHB.

The first 100 refugees will arrive in three groups in January, March and May next year.

Good. May they find a warm welcome and a future of peace and security here in Dunedin.

17 comments on “Refugees to be settled in Dunedin ”

  • Comments are now closed

  2. BM 2
    27 November 2015 at 9:37 am

    Socialist capital of NZ, by far the best place for them.

  3. McFlock 3
    27 November 2015 at 10:00 am

    Excellent. Good luck to them.

  4. Heather Grimwood 4
    27 November 2015 at 10:51 am

    I feel proud of Dunedin’s stance and thankful for the culture it promotes……sorely needed in these times of fearmongering.

  5. freedom of will 5
    27 November 2015 at 11:13 am

    They should stay in Syria.

  6. adam 6
    27 November 2015 at 1:18 pm

    Won’t work, bright lights, opportunities and warm weather of Auckland and they will flock North.

    Plus already a well established Syrian community in Auckland. Small though it is.

    Again with the wishful thinking with these dumb as Tories.

    • Ergo Robertina 6.1
      27 November 2015 at 8:56 pm

      You do realise that four of the other refugee resettlement centres are outside of Auckland, right?

  7. Gangnam Style 7
    27 November 2015 at 1:49 pm

    As a resident in Dunedin I welcome them, good on DCC for this! A few vocal rednecks at my work moaning about it but fuck ’em. ‘there but for the grace of god’

    • alwyn 7.1
      27 November 2015 at 2:06 pm

      Poor sods.
      Given the choice they would probably prefer Christmas Island.
      To correct your quote. It isn’t just ‘there but for the grace of god’.
      It is ‘But for the grace of god I would have been sentenced to a term in Dunedin’.
      Just joking of course. I suppose I could add the phrase
      “Some of my best friends are from ……’?

      • Gangnam Style 7.1.1
        27 November 2015 at 2:46 pm

        SO funny I forgot to laugh, “My town is better than your town”, grow up dickhead. Or maybe just an occurrence of ‘small man syndrome’, where you have to belittle something to make yourself seem bigger.

  8. music4menz 8
    27 November 2015 at 4:47 pm

    Does this mean that they will be obliged to remain in Dunedin for a specified period of time before they are free to choose where else they might live? Surely they can’t be compelled to remain in a certain city if they find it unconducive. Does anyone have knowledge of the conditions that will be placed upon them regarding their settlement in Dunedin?

    • sabine 8.1
      27 November 2015 at 8:39 pm

      I believe that they may have restriction initially for where they can move too. But I would think that once they have residence status, have jobs and don’t need government support they can move to where work and housing calls.

      .

      And frankly, i would venture to guess that for the syrian refugees it would not matter where they get settled, as long as no bombs fall on their houses, their wifes and daughters don’t get beaten for wearing to tight a abbaya, their husbands and sons don’t get beaten for shaving or for not joining the most glorious suicide brigades.

  9. Peter 9
    29 November 2015 at 10:41 am

    I’m proud of Dunedin, and Mayor Dave Cull in particular, for being so welcoming, and treating the (mercifully) few comments of bigotry with the scorn they deserved.

    I’ll volunteer my time if necessary to assist them in settling in.

The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.