Inward migration continues to surge to new highs, with a record net gain of 72,000 people in the 12 months to May, according to Statistics NZ.
"The continued high level of net migration in the May 2017 year was driven by non-New Zealand citizens migrating to New Zealand," Statistics NZ's population statistics manager Peter Dolan said.
Altogether 130,403 people arrived in this country on a permanent or long term basis and 58,439 departed permanently or long term, giving a net gain of 71,964.
Of the arrivals, 32,066 were New Zealand citizens returning this country, while 33,398 departed, giving a net loss of 1332 New Zealand citizens in the year to May.
That was more than made up for by the 98,337 citizens of other countries who arrived here on a permanent or long term basis, with 25,041 non-new Zealand citizens departing permanently or long term, giving a net gain of 73,296 non-New Zealand citizens in the year to May.
The biggest source countries for net permanent and long migration were China and Hong Kong 11,024, followed by India 7593, the UK 6534, South Africa 4729 and The Philippines 4539.
By visa type the biggest group of arrivals came on work visas (44,459), followed by 38,326 Australian and New Zealand citizens (who do not require visas), student visas (23,740) and and residency visas 16,736.
The latest figures will bring little relief for the Auckland region, with nearly two thirds of the net gain in population occurring in Auckland.
It is estimated that Auckland's population grew by around 44,000 people directly from migration in the year to June, and that's on top of the natural increase (births exceeding deaths) in the region's population and internal migration from people moving to Auckland from other parts of the country.
Such a large increase in population will undoubtedly put further pressure on the city's housing supply and other overstretched infrastructure such as transport and health.
Net long term migration
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136 Comments
I for one am happy to welcome so many diverse cultures into New Zealand, most have come here to work or study and when they buy a house they are rightfully considered to be Kiwi buyers, not foreigners who make up only 3% of all buyers.
The economic boost they bring is something to be celebrated, and I am glad that schools are teaching so many diverse cultures at school, rather than Eurocentric studies like maths and literature.
Very uneducated response typical of too many NZ'ers. No one can question the value of diversity, new cultures etc (and i do not blame migrants from poorer countries coming here), but thats not the goal of the migration policy. Rampant migration is making most NZ'ers poorer day by day. By all means have migrants that help NZ move forward, but not to the detriment of those already here
No one can question the value of diversity...
Some learned people have questioned it and found it wanting:
Ethnically diverse countries like the United States and the United Kingdom are run by successful governments with high approval ratings. On the contrary, mono-cultural nations like Denmark and Norway are in a constant state of social and economic turmoil. Sweden was a troubled nation but the open door immigration policy has been a sweet deal for political stability in the country.
Regions with cultural diversity like Sub-Saharan Africa, upper Gulf and the Indian subcontinent are all testaments to peace and prosperity.
Regarding Sweden I'm sure they would prefer political turmoil to the ethnic turmoil they are experiencing since they let in so many refugees with totally difference culture.
But you may have a point look at NZ with its winning status as the country with the door widest has some of the most apathetic voters in the world.
Advisor ? Really ? Like check out just the rape statistics skyrocketed in Sweden
Germany is frankly a joke The taxpayers paying for large apartments to accommodate refugees with extremely large families Some with 2 wives ! Require 2 apartments !
Go speak to ethnic German shopkeepers struggling under their taxation burden and at the same time witnessing foreigners unemployed obtaining free everything !
I myself agree with diversity and do not share the P&T workers hatred but I put this out there to show some objectivity about the pitfalls that are happening in some countries
Worth noting Berlin was the most sexual tolerant ethnic diverse city on the planet until the Nazis. Diversity can easily be turned on its head by those who choose to divide to gain power.
Auckland doesn't have a refugee problem it has a leadership governmental problem of incompetence
Building prosperity on sand castles will end in tears
Zachary,
I was intrigued to see you describe yourself as an "Alt-Righter". According to Wikipedia,that makes you part of a loose grouping with Far-Right ideologies. "Alt-Right beliefs have been described as isolationist,protectionist,anti-semitic and white supremacist,frequently overlapping with Neo-Nazism,nativism,Islamophobia and anti feminism." Which of these many charming traits are you happy to associate yourself with? All,or just some?
I well remember your enthusiasm for Trump,so perhaps it is all of them.
.zach is a little miopic but his hearts in the right place he thinks
Diversity like monoculturalism has its pitfalls
Being human & emotional we are easily manipulated into division by those who seek to govern us.
Nothing's going to change until perhaps we have machines that run things more correctly
With Trump elected & Brexit we can easily see the latest crazy machinations of the hoards believing in snake oil salesmen like Farage & Trump
skudiv,
I can't wait to hear your explanation of maths as Eurocentric. You might want to ask an Indian or a Chinese what they think of that. To take just one small example;where do think the number Zero(0) came from? I'll give you a clue,not anywhere in Europe. Oh these countries also have their own literature.
The curious rise of the ‘white left’ as a Chinese internet insult
, baizuo is used generally to describe those who “only care about topics such as immigration, minorities, LGBT and the environment” and “have no sense of real problems in the real world”; they are hypocritical humanitarians who advocate for peace and equality only to “satisfy their own feeling of moral superiority”; they are “obsessed with political correctness” to the extent that they “tolerate backwards Islamic values for the sake of multiculturalism”; they believe in the welfare state that “benefits only the idle and the free riders”; they are the “ignorant and arrogant westerners” who “pity the rest of the world and think they are saviours”.
The term first became influential amidst the European refugee crisis, and Angela Merkel was the first western politician to be labelled as a baizuo for her open-door refugee policy. Hungary, on the other hand, was praised by Chinese netizens for its hard line on refugees, if not for its authoritarian leader.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/digitaliberties/chenchen-zhang/curious-ri…
Good Luck my countrymen & women .......you're gonna need it driving to work , getting hospital treatment in a timely manner, finding schooling for children that was underfunded already by National & required schools like Rangitoto College to actively go overseas to drive fee paying student numbers.
Murray McCully used to lambast Labour for underfunding NShores schools ! Then f
When in power National did same.
@Gummy Bear Hero , you are being more than a little unfair about the South Africans . Our family Doctor is South African , as is our dentist , and my kids are taught by South African teachers , I was in North Shore hospital a few years back and the nurses were practicaly all Fillipino or South African working the swing shift .
I dont see them as stormtrooper types or violent criminal types or any other stereotype
Yes I saw an artical a while back with blacks saying they were better off under apartheid because at least there were jobs. Now they just have blacks ripping them off and running the country into the ground. What can be said is it really doesn't matter about the colour of your skin, we are all human and corruption applies to everyone.Perhaps its best that people don't comment unless you actually know people that have lived in SA, unless you live carrying your car keys, wallet AND a 9mm pistol with you 24/7 perhaps you need to leave the place.
The Man Who Invented Identity Politics for the New Right
Perhaps the Sailerist idea most closely echoed by the Trump movement is “citizenism,” which he describes as the philosophy that a nation should give overwhelming preference to the interests of its current citizens over foreigners, in the same way as a corporation prioritizes the interests of its current shareholders over everyone else. Effectuating this philosophy — putting “Americans First,” as he put it in 2006—would, according to Sailer, require a draconian reduction in immigration levels.
Most liberals would take issue with citizenism as reactionary, and perhaps see it as a closeted form of the white nationalism openly championed by many bloggers on the alt-right. Yet Sailer describes citizenism as the best possible bulwark against ethnonationalist impulses. In Sailer’s view, people are naturally inclined to pursue “ethnic nepotism” — that is, to help those like themselves at the expense of those who are not. The goal of citizenism, therefore, is to redirect these energies by providing a more expansive definition of “us” than the race or tribe.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/04/steve-sailer-invented-iden…
Oxytocin promotes human ethnocentrism
To survive and prosper, individuals need groups whose members contribute information and resources.
. A key mechanism facilitating such in-group cooperation is ethnocentrism, the tendency to view one's own group as centrally important and as superior to other groups.
http://www.pnas.org/content/108/4/1262.full
"Bury them alive!’: White South Africans fear for their future as horrific farm attacks escalate
http://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/world-economy/bury-them-alive-wh…
The white South Africans didn't want to come here until they had to end apartheid.
We helped end that disgusting form of enslavement to then let the educated South Africans immigrate here. That seems hypocritical to me.
I think the educated South Africans should have had to stay home and help repair the damage done to the black people by their apartheid system.
I personally see them as our least desired immigrants.
Mr Hippy , let he who stirs the $#!t be the one who has to lick the spoon .
I spent some years in Zimbabwe working for Standard Chartered Bank commercial division in Central Africa and can assure you that most white Africans are nowhere near as overtly racist as Australians or even us New Zealanders .
They are leaving for the same reason I asked to be sent sent back to the UK head-office , and its simply because it has become an unpleasant place to live with violent crime , rotten dysfunctional politics , a non-functioning health system and widespread corruption , infectious diseases for which there is often no cure ( I contracted bilharzia and Malaria ) and a whole host of other unpleasant nonsense affecting ones daily life
No argument about Ausie racism Boatman. They also practiced a form of apartheid but didn't name it. As for NZ? we had racist beginnings with colonization, But in more recent decades, Pakeha and Maori have by now had so much intermarriage that we are one people. My interpretation of the word Pakeha is someone born, or at the very least done their schooling in NZ. Gaining residency as an adult makes you Kiwi but not Pakeha.
I don't consider Pakeha NZ as racist against Maori. I don't consider our governments since WW2 to have endemic racism. The immigration debate is not racist, It is about preserving what NZ has become as a culture and as a lifestyle and as a place where our children have opportunity as a birthright.
We've plenty of those workers already here. Piling in more is pure scam.
How many tens of thousands of chefs have come in over the past ten years? And somehow we still have shortages? There aren't that many restaurants. Where did they all go?
Cut out just the fraudulent immigration paths and that'd be a good start. Begin with the fake schools importing thousands of fake students and pretending to teach them fake subjects for fake diplomas while they displace local unskilled workers and pay under the table for residency.
And yet restaurants (who employ short term / temporary visa holders for low level work) squeal like stuck pigs at the thought of having to pay their top-level chefs more than $49,000 to give them a pathway to residency. But they have the gall to whine that Kiwis don't see hospitality as a viable career...Well that should be damn obvious, if you're moaning about having to pay a top chef more than $49k.
They won't actually pay just fiddle it. see https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/news-events-and-notices/news/news-2… for evidence.
Labours new policy is pretty good. I hope other parties pick it up. And change the skills shortage list to only include highly skilled specialists. Chefs, retail managers and agriculture / forestry work need to be removed.
Has Winston given any figures on where he would cap immigration numbers?
It just isn't reported though. You may find it on the back pages of the Herald or there will possibly be a 10 sec slot on the TV news but the problems around this level of migration are never properly critiqued by the media so most people will remain ignorant of the facts.
The film the Never ending story is actually a psychological horror movie ……………… our immigration policy is no different .
And note that’s a net gain of 72,000 people , the actual number of migrants was 130,000 that’s over 10,000 a month
And just in case we lose site of the mess we are creating , we are only building 8,000 new dwellings a year to house these 70 000 people so lets not complain about overcrowding .
There are simply no builders around to do more work
Forget about the Todd Barclay fiasco that’s an irrelevant employment dispute and a sideshow of no consequence to anything or anyone .
The real thing that would cause the National Government to lose this election is the immigration policy
Problem is Andrew Little yesterday said Labour would not change the policy .
So its Hobsons choice for voters …………….all the horses in the stable are fit only for the glue factory
I'm no economist, but isn't it economics 101 that when you've got something that's highly in demand, in this case NZ residency, but you're overwhelmed by the demand, that you put up the price until demand drops to manageable levels?
Want residency? Then build a house for yourself, and contribute a hefty sum to the Housing NZ Build State Rentals and Infrastructure fund or GTFO.
Exceptions to be made for professions where there are real shortages, not imaginary ones. Such as oncology and mental health nursing.
And get rid of some of the dysfunctional fusterclucks whereby qualified people with genuine qualifications from quality institutions don't have those qualifications recognised and have to essentially re-train from scratch, whilst con artists with fake credentials are able to get jobs as doctors and psychologists and go unnoticed for years.
Welcome to National paradise.
Many are immigrant in NZ but by going to extreme and their arrogant approach, national has made immigration a bad word.
National is only surviving on people fear of being termed racist if they talk about immigration and shows concern about such high number but till when......It is, this many silent voters who have voted national till now, will rebel and vote.
Removing it also stops an important issue being debated.
Language skills make up a component of citizenship, in fact to acquire citizenship you should be "able to hold a basic conversation in English" (personally I would also say in Maori) but hey those are the rules.
I understand we are generally talking about new residents rather than citizens, and that the comment may be a generalisation.
But it raises a valid point about whether or not basic language skills are being met/enforced.
Lifted from Macrobusiness, Mark Latham's Outsiders tackles the issue of immigration in Australia and the issues are identical pressures on non-responsive housing supply and an infrastructure not built to handle increased population. Latham gets into it from about 38:00.
What a brilliant idea - repayable student loans for migrants - no loan just automatic repayable debt
Mark Latham was Labour leader for a brief spell - Probably the intellectual they needed - unfortunately he opened his mouth a bit too much and spoke without dressing it up
HECS (Higher Education Contribution Scheme) was the original incarnation of student loans
As National clamps down on immigration the numbers of immigrants go up.
National and most of our media still say immigration is a success story. They don't ever mention what the financial cost is for NZ taxpayer to supply infrastructure for all these people.
The countries infrastructure of roads, bridges, storm water systems, hydro dams and hospitals is not the natural landscape. All this stuff has cost trillions of dollars to build over the last 100 yrs and we give it away to everyone that steps off the plane intending to live here.
Not only do they get the infrastructure for free but now that the population growth has overwhelmed the infrastructure we all have to pay the bill to build more.
How about the people who were in NZ 10 years ago pay a tax rate to support our old people, beneficiaries etc and the people who have moved here since then pay the tax rate that pays for the needed infrastructure.
Yeah, they would all leave.
One of the doors into NZ for immigrants was to buy or create a business. Most purchased rental houses as their business. Lots purchased corner dairies and other such high cash flow businesses which are great investments for high cash incomes and not much tax to pay. A very few actually created businesses that earn export dollars. Kim Dot Com was among the few. Our export earnings have gone down, not up.
I agree that immigrants (like me) should pay for the benefit of becoming a Kiwi. But you are wrong we wouldn't all leave - most immigrants admire the Kiwi culture and want to become Kiwis even if our accents or appearances are a little different.
See how much those poor Indians are paying agents in India to get them on expensive but useless PTE diploma courses in order to end up as permanent residents. These are often poor people using thair familes life savings just to get into NZ.
what national MP.s say in the heat of the debating chamber speaks volumes about there attitude towards immigration. its all about the money.
the part that makes me laugh is PTE employing kiwis as teachers, it is mostly older immigrants teaching newer immigrants how to become residents
Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH: I have taken a careful look at a recent policy announcement that targets international students and our international education sector. The basic premise is that the Government should stop issuing student visas for courses below a Bachelor's degree that are not independently assessed by the Tertiary Education Commission and the New Zealand Qualifications Authority to be of high quality. Last year just about 72,000 international student visas for tertiary institutions were granted in New Zealand. Based on the figures in that report, which target a reduction of 15,000 to 22,000 international students, that could put about 25 percent of the sector at risk, which translates to as much as $1 billion a year and thousands of jobs. I
I will vote TOP in the election. There immigration policy is at http://www.top.org.nz/top2. I quite like NZ First also, but dislike their grey power element. Bring in means testing for seniors (or similar) and then I am happy.
I get the feeling that in Auckland we'll see an outflux of people who have the professional skills and qualifications to go to a better lot elsewhere, and an influx of people for whom substandard (by NZ standards) living and unethical exploitation in Auckland still beats life in a third world slum.
The latest data is for 2016. Auckland has 34.4% of the population and contributes 37.2% of the nation's GDP. That has been rising and is the highest proportion ever in the StatsNZ series. (ditto for population).
Would be interested to know what the numbers are for your reference "cities in the OECD".
Michael Reddell's written a few times about the underperformance of Auckland relative to other cities. Here's one of the articles:
https://croakingcassandra.com/2016/05/13/outperforming-cities-but-not-a…
Key points - Auckland
• Auckland – low exports, innovation and GDP per capita (one of the lowest of 80 OECD Metros).
• Heavily subsidised by the Regions.
• Auckland growth increases GDP from building new houses, infrastructure and services.
• It does not increase GDP or exports per capita.
• Building houses for new migrants who do not add economic value is not sensible .
• How about bringing in more migrants to build those houses?
http://kerrymcdonald.co.nz/assets/POLICY-Livestrands-Winton.pdf
Zachary are you there? Here are some sales in my neck of the wood from the last few days:
14a Waiata Ave, Remuera - Sold $4,650,000
http://uprealestate.co.nz/UPR13036
*
248 Victoria Ave, Remuera - Sold $4,500,000
http://remuerarealestateregister.co.nz/catalog/product/1189
*
82 Upland Rd, Remuera - Sold $3,756,000
http://rwremuera.co.nz/auckland/remuera/82-upland-road-10259183/
*
2/452 Remuera Rd, Remuera - Sold $3,725,000
https://www.barfoot.co.nz/578338
*
36 St Vincent Ave, Remuera - Sold $3,700,000
http://rwremuera.co.nz/auckland/remuera/36-st-vincent-avenue-17084892/
*
93 Lucerne Rd, Remuera - Sold $3,550,000
https://www.bayleys.co.nz/Listing/Auckland/Auckland/Remuera/1751128
Still a premium price for a 2-bed 1-bath 1-garage.
Hey this dated Unit Title property at 3b Walton St, Remuera sold for $2,725,000 last month https://www.barfoot.co.nz/595647
Well most migrants tend to be economic migrants, take this article for example: Chinese Canadians Make More Than The General Population
https://betterdwelling.com/chinese-canadians-make-general-population/
If you move to the right country then you can reap the rewards, otherwise you could be stuck in a economic rut. Sadly NZ isn't one of those rewarding countries, well it use to be when property was affordable. Oh well...
NZ immigration figures has also made it in to the British press today, they give more concise figures and hit the nail on the head: New Zealand's net migration hits record high
Quote: Rising immigration is shaping up to be a key election issue in September as it strains the country’s infrastructure and has been blamed for inflating property markets.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/22/new-zealand-immigration-h…
Averageman your comment about everyone being an immigrant in NZ is very fitting of your name.
I am born raised and educated in NZ and not an immigrant thank you very much. I also expect the government I elect to look after people such as myself first and foremost. As far as I am concerned the once beautiful country I grew up in is being transformed into a hole for want of a better description that many a 3rd world immigrant is desperately escaping from. I don't think it's scaremongering to suggest that in 15-20 years Auckland will be completely and utterly ruined if something isn't done about this reckless disregard for the kiwi quality of life. I am certain there are many as angry as I am about this. It will be a travesty if this does not change.
Born in NZ Aucklanders are moving out of the city as immigrants pour in. Demography changes can be surprisingly fast.
London is now over 50% immigrant or child of immigrants and it will soon be over 50% what is called 'visible immigrant'. Of course that category can include a perfectly integrated Sikh who plays soccer and drinks in the local pub but it also includes Bengalis who may be 3rd generation but speak Bengali at home, whose wife never leaves the house and who virtually never interact with a non-Bengali (shops, mosque, schools, playgrounds, social media, TV, etc).
So immigration has to be handled carefully, especially if you are in favour of it. Definitely it is time for a pause to digest what has arrived to date.
You are right.
My family is blended Melanesian/UK but I have heard similar comments about Chinese immigration from Chinese immigrants and Indian immigration from an Indian immigrant. All you have to do is chat to the first immigrant you meet - if they have been in NZ for at least decade then they will usually say 'immigration needs better control and 'things are getting worse''. Note Labour's Raymond Huo article in yesterday's Herald and I noticed an Indian face among the NZ 1st candidates.
The only people I've met who argue for a massive increase in NZ population are NZ born who have never been on an OE, Why they think that 10 or 15 million will be good for NZ is beyond me - those figures are still a fraction of the population of Manila, Mexico city, Shanghai, Mumbai so we would still be too small to compete if you think competition is all about numbers (can 70million Lions beat 4million Kiwis? we will see tomorrow)..
Agree - National supporters as well who want to have their cake and eat it too.
I want expensive houses so that I can feel rich, but heck, I don't want to pay increased taxes or rates to deal with the additional infrastructure needs caused by excessive immigration.
Some years ago it was sort of accepted that 5 million would be a good population for NZ to have. Well, we are almost there and suddenly it seems, it is now twice that amount, more even. The first thing you need to realise that is that relying on population growth for your "prosperity" has no fullstop to it. It would be pushed out as we reached 10 million.
The whole world has to stop and think about how our overpopulation is destroying the very thing we need to survive, the world. We need to be going in the other direction, not endlessly increasing in this finite world. It is the very definition of madness as far as I am concerned.
"our overpopulation is destroying the very thing we need to survive, the world"
Absolutely true. Which raises the question of why we spend a single cent on health... or food banks ... or save the children ... or health & safety...
But the financial system NEEDS continually increasing demand ... which translates to more people.
We are stuck.
im afraid history doesn't support that. Its like saying you can solve a ponzi scheme - you dont, it just collapses.
Any "solution" requires
- a massive reduction in population
- a massive reduction in living standards - ie living in sustainable terms with a local ecosystem
- a new economic / political system curbing freedoms re resource use
So willing people will be short on the ground ...
In my community there is a very high representation of immigrants from Europe and North America. Most of them are reluctant to discuss immigration but the ones who do are all horrified at what we are doing to New Zealand. They came here for what was to them paradise, low population, excellent infrastructure and very low corruption. They are disappointed that we are loosing the lifestyle they came here for.
well said.
Did new immigrants realize that massive immigration is bad for the future? The answer is absolutely true. As somebody eloquently said 'Auckland is becoming the 3rd world hole, which immigrants are desperately trying to escape from'. Yes, new immigrants are also stakeholders of the future of NZ and open-to-all kind of immigration is a threat for everyone (except property gangsters).
Do we have enough capacity to absorb more people? do we have enough housing, schools, hospitals or public services to cater to these would be immigrants. Is there any change in the infrastructure on the ground? If not, why can't we take a breather and allow things to catchup?
To migrants coming into New Zealand the place is El Dorado, Treasure Island, Mother Lode, Bonanza, Paradise, Shangri-La, Utopia, Wonderland (all-in-one)
No cost, free-of-charge, free healthcare, free superannuation, free education, free infrastructure
What more could you ask for
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