International labour mobility has been on the rise in recent decades. In many countries including New Zealand, there has been a significant shift from permanent migration to temporary migration in order to meet labour demands in critical sectors. While many of those on the move are highly skilled, globally there is demand for particular types of low skill workers. However, almost all low skill workers who are legal migrants are temporary migrants and the main avenue for regulating the movement of low skill workers internationally has been guest worker schemes or temporary migrant worker programmes. There are divergent opinions amongst policy makers and researchers on the merits of circular migration. Some see only negatives impacts for migrant workers: including dependency and exploitation, social exclusion, and irreversible social impacts on their families left behind. Others believe that the current iteration of guest worker schemes can complement both labour demand and development (through remittances, skill transfer and experience). This paper focuses on the host country, that is New Zealand’s perspective, and specifically on the human rights and labour law issues that will be relevant for any future expansion of low skill migration to New Zealand. In particular the focus is on low skill caring and related work rather than work in areas such as construction, manufacturing or primary sector industries.

Keywords: Low skill migration, guest worker schemes, human rights, labour law