The Laubscher family are brand new to New Zealand, arriving into Auckland airport this weekend with their four children from Johannesburg, South Africa.

With three young daughters and a nine-month-old baby, the Laubscher family walked through the Auckland international arrival gates this weekend, ready to call New Zealand home.

They had travelled 28 hours from Johannesburg, South Africa. Four trollies stacked their cellophane-wrapped baggage and one of the girls helped push the pram. They were exhausted.

But cooling public attitudes, tighter immigration laws and a new Labour plan to slash migration numbers were not the warm Kiwi welcome they were expecting.

JAMES PASLEY/FAIRFAX NZ Saber Xie, 26, is about to have a baby with New Zealand resident Jeff McDonald, yet if nothing changes, she'll lose her right to live in New Zealand when residency requirements change later this year.

On Monday, Labour leader Andrew Little will announce an election policy to cut back on immigration, closing the doors to tens of thousands of migrants a year. Those on student visas and with low-skill occupations will be most affected.

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And in April, the Government raised the income threshold for migrants working in low-paid jobs, so even skilled workers face being thrown out if they don't earn enough.

The parties are responding to the changing mood of voters, to the Brexit and Trump political climate, and to an increase in the number of work visas from 37,190 in 2000 to 192,688 in 2016.

With the increase has come public unease: Half of New Zealanders still hold a positive view of migrants, but that has dropped five percentage points in a year, according to a report from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

Stuff spoke this weekend to new migrants including the Laubscher family; to a pregnant piano teacher who is pinning her hopes to stay in New Zealand on Labour's planned law changes; and to an IT employer who fears Labour's crack down on students could deny New Zealand the high-skilled migrants our economy needs.

Edgar Laubscher, 41, was confused at the immigration cuts. He believed skilled migrants were needed in the country, desperately.

"I find that very strange, because what we're hearing is that New Zealand is not bursting at the seams and is desperately seeking skilled people," Laubscher said.

"That's why we sent in our applications here because we hear that New Zealand is looking for skilled people and taking them."

Laubscher has more than 20 years experience as a sound engineer; wife Lucia, 37, is a portrait photographer.

His brother moved to New Zealand five years ago. He found Kiwi's lacked the skill-sets employers were after, and encouraged Laubscher to seek a role in the promising country.

"The reason why I'm here is because they could not find somebody with the skill level they needed in the country," Laubscher said.

"I've got four daughters and we've come to one of the best education systems in the world. I'm chasing a future for my kids."

Ahead of tomorrow's policy announcement, Labour immigration spokesman Iain Lees-Galloway said there needed to be a breather while Auckland's infrastructure caught up with its growing population.

The policy would fast-track visas for people with "exceptional skills", encourage immigration to regions that are grappling with declining populations, and reduce immigration numbers.

"We think we can achieve a number in the tens of thousands by focusing on a small number of visas and doing it in a way which is going to ensure employers get the skills and labour they need," Lees-Galloway said.

But Infrastructure Minister Steven Joyce said New Zealand was close to full employment by "traditional standards".

"If we want to keep our companies growing, we have to be prepared to bring in skilled workers as well as train new ones," Joyce said.

POLICY OFF-KEY WITH PIANIST

Accomplished pianist Saber Xie, 26, fears she will be one of the first victims of the immigration crackdowns. She was seven months pregnant when the government announced changes to immigration requirements.

With the baby due soon, the piano teacher may have to leave New Zealand and her partner Jeff McDonald because she doesn't earn enough money.

Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse said migrants earning less than the median New Zealand income of $49,000 would not be classified as highly skilled, regardless of what industry they worked in.

Xie, who comes from the Chinese city of Xi An, has been in New Zealand since 2013 and on a skilled work visa since last year.

She taught students all levels of piano across Auckland, but only earned about $500 a week which was nowhere near the government's new threshold.

Xie said her visa would expire in March despite the fact her son would be a New Zealand citizen. Then she would be required to leave the country.

If the requirements hadn't changed, she would have been able to apply for NZ citizenship in the middle of next year.

"At this point either she has to take her Kiwi son to China and raise it without his dad, or go back and leave him with me," McDonald said.

"We want to raise our son in a loving home. We want to look for any possible way we can to be a family."

MINDING THE SKILLS GAPS

Varun Bhetti, 29, on the other hand, feels "safe" as a valued migrant employee. But he fears the door is being closed behind him, with Labour tightening the rules for people like him who arrived on student visas.

He's been in the country since 2012, where he studied business and marketing at Unitec and paid off his $30,000 student loan granted from India.

As a sales and marketing manager in IT, he said employers were relying on migrant workers because they couldn't fill the gaps with skilled Kiwis.

"Employers are looking for work but they're not finding it, if they cut migrants that will be a big shot," Bhetti said.

He believed many young Kiwis found it easier to keep a wage rather than upskill.

"I think they think it's easier to pay bills but might not build skills or develop."

If a student migration cut were to play out, New Zealand would suffer, he said.

"Totally clear, without migrants New Zealand will find it hard to build themselves further, skilled migrants will start looking at other options and there's still a big shortage.

"We should always want quality, not quantity," Bhetti said.

NEW ZEALAND NEEDS YOU

This year, immigrants have been granted work visas to fill these jobs, because employers said they were unable to find suitable Kiwis.

* 5 bungy jump masters

* 2 barristers

* 101 baristas

* 25 checkout operators

* 295 housekeepers

* 128 fast food cooks

* 45 laundry workers

* 4 judges

* 1 parking inspector

* 5 sculptors

* 1 streetsweeper operator

* 4 tow truck drivers