Government proposals aimed at reducing the number of migrants coming into New Zealand from what it describes as the currently "unsustainable" levels, could literally change the face of the migrant population.
Last year just over a quarter of a million people arrived in NZ long term, and the biggest source country by far for migrant arrivals was India, with almost 51,000 Indian citizens migrating to here last year, according to Statistics NZ figures.
They were followed by more than 36,000 Philippine citizens, almost 27,000 citizens of China and 11,000 citizens of Fiji. (See the table below for the main source countries of migrants).
The Government has said it intends to take aim at the rules for obtaining a work visa, making it more difficult for low skilled workers to enter the country.
Last year people on work visas were easily the biggest source of migrants, with almost 89,000 coming on work visas. (See the second graph below).
Once again, India was by far the biggest source of migrants on work visas, with 15,000 Indian citizens arriving on work visas last year. They were followed by 10,000 Chinese citizens, almost 10,000 from the Philippines and 4600 from Fiji.
After the top four countries of citizenship, work visa arrival numbers from other countries drop away fairly quickly to just a few thousand a year.
So although we don't know the details of the government's planned changes yet, it's likely that migrant arrivals from India could be sharply reduced, probably followed by those from China, the Philippines and Fiji.
Of course it's not just citizens of other countries that affect NZ's migrant flows. NZ citizens also have a propensity to live and work overseas and last year almost 75,000 left NZ on a long term basis. If they had not gone, the impact of the number of overseas citizens coming to NZ would have been even greater.
Although the 75,000 long term departures was high by historical standards, there have been similar levels of outflows of NZ citizens un the past.
In 2011, when National was in power, 71,187 NZ citizens left the country long term, followed by another 70,697 in 2012.
So high levels of emigration appear to occur regardless of which party is in power. And there's probably not much that the government can do to influence that.
Young New Zealanders have been travelling overseas to work in Australia and the UK for decades, although many also return after a few years.
Last year almost 28,000 NZ citizens returned after an extended stay overseas. And in 2019, before Covid affected travel patterns, 41,000 returned home after an extended absence.
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21 Comments
I don’t know much about visas, but presumably for people on work visas who don’t have residence, they need to return to their hone countries if they lose their jobs?
Thinking about what happens when the economy truly tanks. And in some areas (construction, hospo) where there are lots of workers on work visas.
Can they stay on if they obtain alternative employment?
The AEWV is conditional on a job. If you lose your job and can not find another you are breaching the terms of your visa. It’s a good system.
Does it have to be another job in the same sector or in a sector of high demand? Or could it be any old job?
The same sector. Note that sector definitions can be wide, and vague.
Note that some unscrupulous employers - often past immigrants themselves - inflate the salaries/wages of the desperate-to-stay so they keep their visas and then charge the immigrant employee for all sorts of things so that the immigrant ends up on near slave wages. (Cases in point: a landlord employer charging almost triple the market rent and forcing their 'employees' to live there. Or a chinese ex-student being given a job and title while the chinese parents paid the 'employer' for giving their child a job that they weren't actually qualified for and couldn't do.)
Other examples: Employer making employees on sponsored work visas work 70 hours per week then paying them for 30 hours, or making them pay part of their declared paid wages back to the employer as cash, or not paying or under paying them holiday pay and sick leave, or making them pay a a cash payment overseas in exchange for sponsorship, or paying part of worked hours as holiday pay so employee misses on holiday pay and sick leave entitlements. This happens too regularly in non-english speaking workplaces in NZ where the sponsored employees speak minimal english and don't understand the law and are susceptible to verbal threats from the employer (e.g. employer will cancel the work visa and send employee back to their home country, or employer spreads negative rumours about the employee in the local ethnic community to isolate them). The employer is often of the same ethnic group as the employee. Vietnamese nail salons and restaurants/cafes in NZ are sadly a common example.
If they were employed under a labour hire company that is basically carte blanche for anything under the sun really. I have seen junior pilots exit hammer hand company crashes going into orderly work at retirement homes & kitchen hands. The immigration system is a rort and all someone needs is to be able to pick up a vacuum or a coffee cup to get a visa under the green skills list.
Why is "visitor" visa included? From what I can work out that's a tourist visa that doesn't allow people the work.
Work visas has exploded in popularity, how have that number of visas even been processed?
"how have that number of visas even been processed" - and people say Labour can't deliver ;)
They delivered the wrong things well eg. Mass, unfocussed immigration
They werent vetting the applications, everyone got approved without reading the application, doing background checks, qualification checks, or employer checks. Its pretty easy to push a computer button that says "approve" and move on to the next application.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/immigration/132853434/shambles-of-our-…
argumentum ad odium
.
Staff reported they are directed not to bother with checks and to push through with applications. The staff did test false applications being accepted by sending a bunch of fake data to find out and all the false applications got instant approval, even the ones where all the reference docs were just cat pictures. They then went public but had to do so anonymously in fear of reprisals. Which says a lot about our immigration dept that the reference docs are not even checked and there is a toxic culture of bullying and abuse to keep employees in check and at no point should they ethically do their job.
"The Government has said it intends to take aim at the rules for obtaining a work visa, making it more difficult for low skilled workers to enter the country."
During my recent stay in public hospital, the majority of my ward nurses were from the Philippines and of the surgeons who dealt with me directly the majority were from China
Maybe not low skilled then. Surgery is not really a fake it till you make it type occupation.
Fantastic! We want and need them.
Its the thousands of people working in hospo etc that’s the issue. Hardly essential workers.
BUT the current minister deemed all chefs are highly skilled and suggested the last government drop the requirement for them to come
This morning Michael Wood confirmed he has finally made a decision on changing the rules that are turning away highly skilled migrant chefs due to a technicality … but we have to wait for the announcement Too late for restaurants forced closed by these absurd rules.
Some chefs are great and some pathetic. Only way to tell the difference is how much is a restaurant willing to pay. If employers had to pay a high price for their worker's work visa then the divide between great and pathetic chefs would be clear.
Really disappointed with Labours performance in this area, did we check the applicants didn't have criminal records and weren't submitting fraudulent applications? Its not too late to check the accuracy of applications.
What messages did the minister of immigration give to the dept that resulted in throwing the checking process out the window?
We are a great country so need to have high standards before giving away rights to become NZers.
No reference docs are mostly not checked not opened. There is a large preference bias though, e.g. make those from Africa inc SA jump through hoops but not certain other countries.
Being a migrant myself who have lived here for 20+ years, I feel NZ never had a strategic view on immigration, the "why" part was never articulated enough. Most of time the government used immigration to fill short-term gaps. They saw immigrants as cash cows and exploit them, while many immigrants used NZ as a pathway to enter other Anglosphere countries and ditched the country asap. Ordinary people who still live in NZ have suffered a lot.
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