2011 is the first year in a decade New Zealand had a calendar year net permanent migration loss.
1,855 more people left the country permanently than arrived, the highest outflow since the 11,330 net loss in calendar 2000.
Statistics NZ said that the seasonally adjusted net loss of migrants in December 2011 was 500 people. Net losses have been recorded in 9 of the 10 months since the February 2011 earthquake in Christchurch.
Unadjusted figures showed 1,100 more departures of New Zealand citizens compared with December 2010, including 900 more to Australia. There were also 500 fewer arrivals of New Zealand citizens.
New Zealand had a net loss of 1,855 migrants in the December 2011 year. This is the largest net loss since the August 2001 year (4,400).
In 2011, there was a net loss of 36,900 people to Australia, the highest ever recorded. There were 51,100 departures to Australia, offset by 14,200 arrivals from Australia. In both directions, most migrants were New Zealand citizens.
There were net gains of migrants from most other countries, led by the United Kingdom (5,500), India (4,900), and China (4,700) in the December 2011 year.
In contrast to the loss of migrants, there were strong visitor arrival numbers - there were 364,200 visitor arrivals in December 2011, the highest recorded for any month.
Jane Turner, an economist at ASB Institutional said:
The allure of the Australian job market continues to motivate New Zealanders to make the move across the Tasman. Indeed, the strong pace of permanent departures to Australia shows little sign of abating, despite the recent slowdown in Australia’s job market.
Over the coming year, we expect a pick up in NZ job growth coupled with slower job growth in Australia will result in a decline in the number of permanent departures. Meanwhile, permanent and long-term arrivals dipped 5.8% over the month, reversing out the previous month’s increase. The slack in NZ’s labour market and reduced demand for migrant workers is a contributing factor to a more subdued pace of permanent arrivals.
The net migration outflow recorded over 2011 has contributed to slower population growth, and has helped alleviate some of the pressure on the tight housing market – particularly in Canterbury and Auckland. We continue to expect migration to recover over 2012, as the ongoing recovery in NZ’s labour market helps stem the steady flow across the Tasman.
The pace of net outflows is yet another factor which reduces any urgency for the RBNZ to increase interest rates over 2012.
Net long term migration
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10 Comments
This is a bit muddled up I'm thinking. Where are the real numbers leaving and arriving?
This is important as new arrivals mainly go to Auckland as far as I can tell whereas I assume people leave from all over. Thus house prices go up in Auckalnd due to all the new buyers.
Is there a regional breakdown?
Where is the link? I do like a good link, it is one of the things that you do so much better than the stuff.it.up people.
RW: Correct. The data is almost meaningless. Sensational but meaningless. It could be that 86,000 born and bred kiwis left, partially replaced by 84,000 northern newcomers. Try examining the makeup of the population demograhics for Auckland central over the past 30 years and you will see what is happening.
Come on David Chaston. Dig a little deeper. Inform your readers. When you fill in an arrivals card you have to declare in your Nationality and country of birth. When you fill in a departure card you have to declare your Nationality and Country of Birth. All that information is collected. And collated. Someone has it. The collector is the same as the provider of the information you have quoted.
There were 84,200 PLT arrivals in the December 2011 year, up 2 percent from the December
2010 year. The 86,000 PLT departures was up 19 percent from the previous year. The net result was a loss of 1,900 migrants in the December 2011 year.
This net loss is the largest since the August 2001 year (4,400). New Zealand has experienced
numerous periods of negative net migration. The highest net loss since the PLT migration series started (in April 1921) was 43,600 people in the July 1979 year.
http://www.stats.govt.nz/~/media/Statistics/Browse%20for%20stats/IntTra…
I'm not surprised. The immigration system here is a shambles. My brother meets all the criteria for coming in, he has sponsorship, job offer, needed skills, clear police & health checks yet it has taken them a year and a half to even assign his paperwork to a case officer.
Apparently that is the "expedited" time-frame for the "Family" category - normally takes 2 years...
Hopeless.
Good Riddance, piss off!
Outflows of New Zealanders should generally act as a stabilizing force, helping to rebalance the economy. Economies with slow growing populations need to devote a whole lot smaller proportion of their real resources to simply maintaining the capital stock per worker.
http://www.treasury.govt.nz/downloads/pdfs/mi-jarrett-comm.pdf
As theBritish government hands out passports to anyone these days the 5500 migrant figure given for the UK could include even more Indians and Chinese. Whatever the mix is, it is quite clear that indigenous New Zealanders are being replaced by immigrants - a fact which doesn't seem to bother the government who do little to stem the flow of skills out of the country.
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