The number of people in New Zealand on work visas has only dropped by 20% since border restrictions were introduced as part of the pandemic response last year.
The latest figures from the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment show that the number of people in NZ on work visas peaked at 220,719 at the end of March 2020.
Since then those numbers have steadily declined, and by the end of October this year were down to 176,550.
Although that's a reduction of 44,169 from last year's peak, which is a decline of 20%, it suggests most of the overseas workers who were in NZ when the borders were closed are still here.
While there has been a net reduction in overseas workers each month, the decline has been relatively modest, with the total number currently declining by around 2000 a month.
Of the 176,550 people who were in NZ on work visas at the end of October, 46,206 were from India, 26,328 were from the Philippines, 17,163 were from China and 11,220 were from the UK.
In percentage terms the border closures appear to have had a bigger impact on the number of overseas students in the country.
Their numbers peaked at 86,109 in October 2019, but by October this year had fallen to 38,178, a drop of 44%.
October is usually the peak month for overseas student numbers, with numbers then declining as their studies come to an end for the year.
So there could be a a more significant decline in overseas student numbers over the next couple of months.
Students from China and India have shown the biggest declines in numbers, with the number of Chinese students in the country declining from the peak of 25,959 in October 2017 to 11,346 at the end of October this year.
The number of Indian students has declined from its peak of 21,600 in February 2016 to 6096 at the end of October this year.
Altogether there were 224,481 people in NZ on work or student visas at the end of October this year, down from 302,754 at the end of March last year when comprehensive border restrictions were introduced. That's a decline of 78,273, or 25.9%.
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43 Comments
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Yeah, good for now, just wait till the barn door is swung wide open and the Govt starts juicing the numbers again. 1st quarter next year at a guess.
This country has two problems: immigrants and fools who think immigrants are the source of all problems.
"has only dropped by 20%". Only? I wasn't aware this would be an opinion article.
The 'education industry' was a rort.
Only people who come to study in those make shift education providers are uber drivers or cleaners.
They do not come here to get educated, they come here to find a way to stay and milk the system. None of them are adding any value as they are not smart.
We need to have a test like GRE to get only smart educated students into the country who will add value.
It's not just 'makeshift education' providers. Our universties bring in Phd candidates, pay them, and they they are gone.
Suits the professor, but not Nrw Zealand.
They aren’t milking the system. They are subsisting as Uber drivers like you said or modern day slaves in bottle shops. Feel sorry for them really but I doubt they are receiving much from the “system”.
Just wait until they get residency!
Then what? They suddenly buy a million dollar house in Wellington from their Uber job pay? Hardly.
No, they head down to WINZ and start milking the welfare system. Not sure what you are on about?
What a racist comment.
How can it be racist? No race is defined. By extension they could be the same race as the commentator. For example, I am English, and if I refer to my fellow countrymen as ugly and uneducated am I racist? Now change that to Maori/Chinese or French then suddenly I'm a bona fide KKK member.
The theme on this site is that there are hordes of people from third world countries (i.e., non whites) coming here and taking advantage. If the immigrants were coming from the UK, no one would express anti-immigrant sentiments on this website.
If the immigrants were coming from the UK, no one would express anti-immigrant sentiments on this website.
I would. Too many people is too many people, I don't care where they come from.
Me too. From the UK 18 years ago and I still wonder why they let me in. I make many comments on immigration and generally try to avoid being anti-immigrant but I am greatly pro reduced numbers and a planned population for NZ. You can have too much of a good thing whether it is immigrants to NZ or party-crashers at a party.
I wish those so bothered about there being “too many people” in the country would stop pumping out children then.
What a crock of shit. You weren't a pommy bastard here in the 70s. Dont recall the 'punch a pom a day' saying? My old man was hated because he did overtime and outworked the other mechanics to try and get ahead. As a pale runt at Papatoetoe Primary School, racism came at me everyday.
Yeah, I arrived from the UK in the 60s and copped plenty of anti-pom flak at school - felt very lonely for years.
Was glad to get to Uni and to work (among professionals), where it was not a problem.
It was my sole driver. Get out of Papatoetoe and the bullying. It worked, life is now peachy. Funny thing, the racism is 2 way between Maori and Whitey now, and one way towards Asians.
Oh yeah, living the dream on WINZ? Yeah right, get a grip. And you have no data to back that up, just your bias.
I didn't even realise NZ had a system to milk.
Only if you're a property speculator.
Immigration lawyer Alastair McClymont: “”A lot of education fairs, like in India, they’ll have reps from the schools, the education agent, Education New Zealand, and they’ll have reps from Immigration New Zealand. They’re all working in conjunction to promote a product that is the export education industry, using the ability to work post-study and obtain a potential pathway to residency.””
and
“”Quite a lot of them borrowed a lot of money or sold their assets, so they feel they’ve been ripped off, conned.””
So well-over half of all foreign workers come from one of three countries that already are well-represented in our key demographics.
Yet the political factions want to sell their lack of quality control over our migration programme as making NZ more "diverse".
I would prefer diversity of migrant occupations, away from hospitality and tourism trades in post-Covid NZ.
Unless the hiring culture changes, it's not happening.
You can't expect deep seated prejudices and discriminatory culture to change overnight.
Our “essential skills” visa is a joke. Dig into the numbers and you see huge numbers of cleaners, retail workers, kitchenhand etc
it is sold as a programme to bring in doctors and engineers but it’s just a way for employers to exploit migrants for cheap unskilled labour and in return provide a path to residency
Well, looks as if the essential skills visa just keeps on giving-
On essential skills visa: Oct 2020 = 62,958 Oct 2021 = 65,763
However, due to the current Covid climate, it could be assumed that in this case the increase was made up by those that would be truly considered “essential”.
If the skill is 'essential' then somebody will pay for it. The definition of a skilled immigrant is an immigrant earning well above average salaries. The way to get skilled immigrants is to charge for their work visa. That's what other countries do.
I work in IT, so the backbone of our workforce is from the big immigration countries (India or nearby, China or nearby). I value my workmates for what matters; their much needed skills and work ethic, not their "vibrancy".
I hear you Rob, I work in a hospital, so the backbone of our workforce is from the big immigration countries Phillipines, India, China. I value my workmates for what matters; their much needed skills and work ethic. In medicine there is much value to diversity and global experience.
My experience of hospital is as a patient. Exceedingly good service and most of the staff were apparently migrants. That's OK when it is highly paid doctors but when it is junior nurses and cleaners then it does seem to be merely a means of providing good medicine at low wages. Why do so many Kiwi doctors and nurses go overseas? It is poor pay and conditions in NZ. It is just a matter of balance.
We do not need any permanent foreign workers in the country anymore for next 20 years. If government can put their affairs in a row, we can easily show lots of growth with what we have here.
We do not need more uber drivers, truck drivers or carpet layers.
Last time I checked there were 2 people doing a carpet laying apprenticeship in NZ. 2.
Spose we can just walk round on bare concrete slabs.
Any prospect of robots at least being able to help?
https://www.replacedbyrobot.info/31937/carpet-installation-specialist
https://www.protradecraft.com/video/robot-sets-tile-twice-fast-human
All credit goes to immigration minister Mr COVID.
Labour has delivered continuous failure in controlling immigration flow before Mr COVID took over.
Our company hires remote overseas now. And there's options for us within NZ to move abroad and remotely work too. I wonder if this will change the future how immigration works.
No doubt it'll result in more of us skilled migrants staying abroad, and we'll be replaced with a surplus of Uber drivers. Got to keep the ponzi alive somehow.
"suggests most of the overseas workers who were in NZ when the borders were closed are still here."
Where is the en masse exodus as was predicted by the highly briefed and educated crowd here on interest
No exodus, because they have all been given PR.
Oh right, that was never a possibility of happening at all, in the minds of the four-castas
Those that came to have a new life in NZ have mostly stayed here - until our borders open up that is. That's when the game changes, probably back to something like it was pre-covid is my guess, to cover for all the young kiwis heading out once again. It would be great to import quality human beings, especially those who stay out of jail & wish to work hard & make a good life for themselves. That's all it really takes from any of us. Yes even the average kiwi Joe. Work hard, pay your bills/taxes, settle down with a family, get the kids educated & you're in. NZ is still in the top 20ísh countries for most measures. It's just that a lot of kiwis still don't get that.
So another the glass is half full. Your glass is half full because you can afford the glass and have a home with clean water to put in it. Tens of thousands of kiwis born here are denied housing, education and employment. Want to guess they too would love to have a glass half full or at least a home to live in and job to work in. The discrimination by yourself and those on this site against kiwis with disabilities is palpable. I support many so desperate for work they will sort your trash just to have income except they can be paid literally less than $3 and hour and end up paying more for transport to work than they receive in pay. In NZ slave labour is common, many of those with disabilities also don't have a choice to work and we have it formally legalised in our laws. You can thank Sir Robert Martin we even have human rights for people of disabilities at all in NZ the trouble is we do not enforce them or punish the government departments when they breach them.
There were 57k births and 33k death in nz in the last year giving us a natural increase of 24k. 300k is the eqalivent of 12 years of natural increase
I agree that education is being used as a ticket into nz and with highly educated university degrees that provided skilled workers for the economy. The low skilled courses should not qualify for this exemption.
There is no suprise that unemployment is lowest in years as our young as now being given chances by employees and the government is pushing for education in trades.
I work in IT and the hiring is a lot harder and at 10k above previous levels as immigration has been suppressing wages not only in IT but all sectors.
Let's hope future immigration is severly restricted to give our your more choice in the nz work force.
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