More Refugees Coming to New Zealand

New Zealand is increasing the number of refugees that it can take in each year.

Last year the number of refugees increased from 750 per year to 1000. In 2020 it will increase to 1500 each year. When you have a ratio expressing a limit such as 750 per year, this is called a quota. You will see headlines in the news about the “refugee quota.” This means the number of refugees that come every year.

The government will make sure that the refugees find homes in different places around New Zealand. They plan to house them in Whanganui, Timaru, and Blenheim, Masterton, Levin, and one more town that has not yet been decided.

At first, refugees will stay in resettlement centres in these towns. The refugee families will go through an induction course where they will get English training and get help learning about their community.

Refugees will move to their new towns little by little. For example, Whanganui will receive three to five families every six to eight weeks. When you have a ratio expressing a speed, this is a called a rate. The government wants to keep the rate of arrivals slow so that people don’t get a shock because of infrastructure or culture.

Even though New Zealand will have doubled its refugee quota, it is still a drop in the ocean compared to the number of refugees hosted by other countries, and the number of people who are displaced.

Vocabulary

ratio: a ratio is a pair of numbers that are compared to each other in some way.

refugee: someone who is displaced

displaced: if you are displaced, it means that you have to leave your home because of some problem such as war or a disaster.

resettlement: the root word here is settle, which means to make a home. Settlement is the noun for making a home, and the prefix “re” means that someone is making a home again.

infrastructure: infrastructure is the things that a community needs, such as water, telephone, electricity, houses.

a drop in the ocean: a very small thing compared to a very big thing

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