Migration is adding almost 1,000 people a week to New Zealand's population, with net permanent and long-term migration hitting a new all time high of 49,800 in the year to October and expected to go even higher next year.
That means population growth from migration is now running at more than four times the long-term average of 11,700 migrants a year from December 1994 to December 2013.
Statistics NZ said the highest ever net annual gain was driven by a combination of more people coming to this country on a permanent and long-term (for more than 12 months) basis, and fewer people leaving.
Total migrant arrivals reached a new high of 108,800 in the year to November, up 17% on the same period a year earlier, while long-term departures of 59,000 were down 20% on the previous year.
The biggest increases in arrivals were from India, followed by Australia, China and the Philippines.
Statistics NZ said migration added 22,500 people to Auckland's population in the year to November, while Canterbury's grew by 6,000, followed by the Waikato 1,700, Otago 1,300, Wellington 1,300 and Bay of Plenty 1,100.
The biggest source of migrants was India, with migrants from that country providing a net gain of 9,967 for the year to November, followed by China 7,186, the UK 5,211, the Philippines 2,317, Germany 2,569, France 2,487 and South Africa 1,434.
However there are expectations that even more migrants may come to this country next year.
In a First Impressions note about the migration figures, Westpac senior economist Felix Delbruck said it could increase to 60,000 next year, putting further pressure on the already over stretched housing market.
"With the Australian economy looking softer than a few months ago, and signs that the New Zealand economy still has plenty of room to grow without pushing interest rates higher, there is every reason to expect people to keep voting in favour of New Zealand with their feet well into next year," Delbruck said.
"We now expect annual net migration to peak at 60,000 in the second half of 2015.
"This is broadly in line with the Reserve Bank's latest thoughts on net migration.
"The question is what it means for the economy - more migrants means more workers, alleviating labour shortages and keeping wage inflation low, but will also add fuel to a housing market that is already showing signs of warming up again."
Net long term migration
Select chart tabs
11 Comments
Only need another year of this and the ealy 2000s boom will have be recreated; the questions as to the impact of this sort of imigration can be seen by looking at early 2000s boom and the subsequent years as the economy responds. Building, GDP, interest rates up, house prices up much more with regions out pacing auck as they play catch up
Where are they all going?
Where are they disappearing to?
What are they doing?
Are they finding jobs?
Are they paying tax and contributing to the economy?
Dunno .. doesn't look like it
How do I know?
Bill English told me so
Income Tax receipts are well down
GST receipts are well down
Must be disappearing into the black economy
Producing a $1 billion black hole turn-around in the current account
Where is the benefit of all this immigration? apart from increasing house prices
The big rort is that both new immigrants and longer term returning citizens have a free four years of tax free investment income from offshore sources.
The question is 'How many of them fess up at the end of that freebies?',
It is worth staying here for a while and then going off to Australia to take advantage of their own freebie.
Tax experts should correct if I am wrong, please.
Greg Ninness says: what it means for the economy - more migrants means more workers
That should show up as more earnings, more wages paid, more PAYE going into the coffers
But that's just not happening - as TOG's asks above - are they disappearing into the black economy?
Read these two articles
No wage records
No PAYE paid
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/better-business/63550828/masala-restaur…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=113…
not every migrant is employed, many are family.
some migrants are wealthy and setup businesses. They don't get wealthy by paying governments lots of tax.
Those migrant jobs were employment and training opportunities for New Zealand born citizens. Some migration good, lots = bad.
"We now expect annual net migration to peak at 60,000 in the second half of 2015.
If the net figure is correct we will have to build a town the size of Nelson or Rotorua to house them all and continue to do so while annual immigrant numbers remain at this level. Eventually the government will have to wake up to the fact that immigration at current levels into New Zealand is not sustainable even if the economy is boosted by their presence in the short term.
We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment.
Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.