New Delhi: New Zealand Immigration Minister Erica Stanford is being slammed for her comments she “never responds” to emails from Indians, because to her those emails are “akin to spam.” She made those remarks during a parliamentary session on May 6.
Erica was defending her use of a personal Gmail account for making official correspondence and said, “I receive a lot of unsolicited emails like, for example, things from people in India asking for immigration advice, which I never respond to. I almost regard those as being akin to spam.”
Priyanca Radhakrishnan, the Indian-origin Labour MP slammed Erica and termed the remarks as discriminatory and insensitive. While speaking to The Indian Weekender, Radhakrishnan said, “Such comments reinforce negative stereotypes about an entire community”. She said it is an unacceptable action from for a minister to single out a specific ethnic group.
Radhakrishnan called the comments “careless at best and prejudiced at worst”, and mentioned that ministers receive unsolicited emails on a regular basis, which is why Erica pointing out emails from Indians seems baseless. She said, “Particularly given New Zealand’s important relationship with India, comments like these serve to reinforce negative stereotypes against an entire community of people.”
Later, Erica clarified that her statement was misinterpreted. She explained, “I did not say that I consider them as spam. I only said that I consider them almost akin to spam.” Moreover, she defended her statement by claiming that she meant the amount of personal email she receives overall and did not specifically point to emails from Indians. She said, “In this instance, I recalled a recent email I’d received of this nature when answering.”
Notably, Erica Stanford is New Zealand’s Minister of Immigration and has been serving in the role since November 27, 2023. She assumed the role after the National-led coalition government under Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was formed.
