New Zealand migrants are considering a protest along the lines of Washington DC's "Day without Immigrants" earlier this year.

Migrant workers are considering going on strike to underline the impact of a toughening up of the immigration system.

​The Government has recently announced it will raise the number of points required to get residency on a skilled migrants visa and impose a minimum income requirement of $48,859.

Two meetings of migrant workers are being held in Auckland on Saturday to discuss the impact of the changes.

JIM BOURG/REUTERS A window of a Washington DC restaurant explaining its closure during the "Day Without Immigrants" protest in February.

One of the meetings is for workers at SkyCity, which has one of the country's largest and most diverse private workforces and hundreds of staff on temporary work visas.

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SkyCity declined to comment, but an organiser with the Unite union, Joe Carolan, said it was one of the rare occasions where both employers and the workers held similar concerns.

RAFAEL BEN-ARI About 900 people belong the SkyCity Employees Association which is meeting today over immigration changes.

He said the union was calling for an amnesty given to 4000 long-term migrant workers in the South Island, largely in the dairy and meat industries, to be extended to other migrants.

"If you want to change the rules, fair enough ... but I think there should be due consideration given to people who are already in the machine."

​Julia Lui of the union-linked SkyCity Employees Association, said those who did not meet the new requirements would have a maximum of three years before they were kicked out, and it seemed very unfair.

Also meeting today is the Migrant Workers Association. A representative Anu Kaloti said some migrants were students, but a much larger group had been working towards residency for several years and were established in schools and communities here.

"Going forward we fully understand that if the Government needs to make tougher laws, that's fine, but it's about people who are already in New Zealand.

"They've contributed to the New Zealand economy through taxes, they've put in the hours, they've put in the hard work, so it seems really unfair to deal them this card now."

She said one action that would be discussed was the possibility of workers taking industrial action, emulating the "day without migrant workers" protests held overseas.

Carolan said most migrants in Auckland were just getting by on low wages and he was concerned "migrant bashing" was distracting people from issues that were governed by government policy.