New Zealand's rate of migration-driven population growth has more than doubled compared to pre-Covid levels.
Statistics NZ estimates that this country had a record net migration gain (long term arrivals minus long term departures) of 119,000 people over the 12 months to the end of September this year, compared to a net gain of 59,000 in the 12 months to September 2019, just before the Covid pandemic hit.
The latest figure is the biggest ever migration-driven population gain for any 12 months period.
The current annual net gain of 119,000 came from a net gain of 164,000 overseas citizens coming to this country long term and a net loss of 45,000 New Zealand citizens heading overseas long term.
Altogether 211,000 overseas citizens came to this country long term in the 12 months to September this year, while another 47,000 overseas citizens who were already here departed long term, giving the net gain of 164,000.
The biggest source countries for foreign citizens migrating to this country were India, the Philippines, China, Fiji and South Africa.
There were 26,000 NZ citizens who returned to this country long term after an extended stay overseas in the year to September, while 71,000 departed long term over the same period, giving the net loss of 45,000 NZ citizens for the year.
That was the biggest ever net loss of NZ citizens in any 12 month period.
The previous record was a net loss of 44,000 in the 12 months to February 2012.
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146 Comments
Time to jack the rents up again!
Fortunately- for now at least - dwelling completions are at record highs. Lots of rental townhouses being completed and for let.
In the short term narrative can be pretty persuasive - so long as enough landlords and tenants are convinced prices should be rising. The fundamental price base, i.e. that driven by supply and demand, is only reached once landlords of empty properties no longer believe they can just wait a few weeks for new sucker.
$400 per room per week , wifi not included. That’s $1200 pw for a 3 beder.
Getting close.
Yawn, you continue to post this same drek as if that’s the norm.
Are you hoping to condition audience expectations to stay afloat?
Was in Tahuna for a week skiing and partying in Sep and we kept track. We went out everynight and skied/boarded 4 days, of the 30+ hospo workers we encountered only two were Kiwi's and one of those was the manager of one restaurant. Didnt sit next to another Kiwi on the ski lifts, all Aussies and Poms and Irish.
This is eaxactly what our economy needs, high rents are a sign of success.
Wow, sounds very elite. Cool, good for you. Ooooh, I see the point of your post was after the skite talk! Pfff. Go you.
First time I've ever hear anyone use that made up term for Queenstown in the wild.
What are you signalling with that?
I must admit, I never expected to see these kind of numbers!
Can arrivals remain at such levels as job vacancies dry up?
Not really suprising, it's the Govts #1 trick... good to see you're admitting that you're wrong though, more for you to do on that front.
Highly unlikely. Attended a presentation last week by Economist Shamubeel Eaqub- he stated that most of the immigrants had come into service the agricultural and construction sectors, which also happen to be the current industries where revenues are declining - particularly agriculture where exports are on the decline as Chinas economy starts to Falter.
Less exports and less construction will result in less demand for migrant labour. The other areas where they use a lot of immigrant labour are in hospitality and retail and looking at todays spend numbers both these industries are starting to tank as well
The worrying data though is the number of kiwis leaving, thats not exactly an endorsement of the NZ economy.
Well we have lost a few fairly skilled staff off overseas, and then when we advertised to replace them (as posted previously re the CV's we got)...sigh a gulf of difference in the skill level and experience.
I know about a dozen young people who have left in the last six months, mostly skilled professionals with 3-7 years experience. Most inbound migrants I've come across are working hospo or driving buses - the latter a useful skill, to be fair. I've also come across a handful of white collar immigrants fleeing the tory government in the UK.
.
Close friends son is just finishing yr 3 of medicine. Pretty much the whole class is openly talking about going to Aussie at the end of their Uni phase. If we don't start bonding med students there will increasingly be no doctors entering into the start of the hospital system.
A very good reason to prioritise more Maori and Pasifika med students.
They already get ~40% racist entry preference, at lower entrance qualifications. Is there any evidence to confirm the % of them who don't subsequently leave NZ ?
Yes, but then you'd have to leave your parents basement to find that out.
20% of Maori live in Australia.
What was the entry criteria before the Europeans came along?
Oh look who's popped up with some casual racism. I'm going to go out on a limb and point out that a country doesn't need to be colonised to establish a Med school Jimbo.
I think you misunderstood me. I was pointing out that Maori were able to become doctors (of some sort) before Europeans came along.
The Don Brash "one country" type people claim it is racism if everyone doesn't live by the exact same rules that are written by white people for white people.
Well if your question was genuine then pre European settler Maori medicine would have been largely homeopathic. In fact, Maori suffered quite badly as they had no immunity to the variety of viruses that came with the settlers.
Can the same be said for law and order?
Like the female Dr interviewed by NZDr magazine early this year? Clearly Caucasian in outward appearance but has the moko and decried racism whilst at med school. Obviously disadvantaged as her Grandfather was a GP. I have a friend who is a consultant at Middlemore whose son used MAPAS. Qualified under the mothers ethnicity. Best guess is a B grade average to get entry but A/A+ for Indians, Chinese and European. It’s a disgrace and many are too afraid to speak out.
Don't worry put health system is un great shape. We can afford a couple of b level doctors
Why? Do you think Maori or Pasifika would not go overseas for better working conditions… better living n schooling for their prospective families? Bit sheltered you are bro… my eldest finishing their PhD is only back for a visit now, Europe is final destination, and they are in a cohort of similar, be they NZ born European, NZ born Māori, NZ born Philippine - they are all heading overseas. All Drs in their fields, PHd if you will. All NZ Born! All multicultural, which pisses me off having to say, cause they are all family and super awesome respectful 26ish year olds we have enjoyed a part of their life. I wish them the best and grow our orchard n garden for their visits. But yeah, carry on with your divisive posts..
One "justification" frequently offered for the racist selection policies is that after qualifying the Maori/Pacifica quota will then return & give back to their communities with more cultural awareness.
However, AFAIK there are no publicly published statistics on their retention rates in NZ.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/health/300013258/medical-school-who-gets…
Phds are not doctors.
There is nothing divisive about my post snowflake. Are you talking about medical doctors or phd's, because a phd is very different, just a Masters with a research paper tacked on.
Yes, of course some Maori doctors will go abroad but not to the extent non-Maori/Pasifika do. How do I know this, go to regional medical facility like the East Cape. Go and ask the fisherman who have accidents there who treats them.
They should be bonded; net taxpayers are funding most of their education.
Or we should pay them what they are worth. Not slightly more than nurses who are significantly less valuable.
Then we can strip them of that extra money by whacking them with a wealth tax and higher income taxes. That will keep them here!
As a society we've run for a wee while now but cutting investment in the young and then trying to shake them down for their wealth...guess the rates of them leaving for elsewhere should not be a surprise.
Arrivals are not remaining at the same level. They are INCREASING! Net arrivals of 80,000 in October, another 30,000 in the first 12 days of November. Hang on to your hats, you aint seen nothing yet.
How will this mega-ponzi end? Why on earth wasn't it the biggest election issue?
We are demolishing what made NZ a good place to live with open space and low congestion and turning it into a congested, polluted, low wage s...hole.
Labour was trying to prop up the gdp figures for the election. Didn't help much.
National don't mind as it will help with housing investors.
But yes it should have been an issue as it is not sustainable.
PDK has already pointed out on numerous occasions the issue with competing on GDP stats in a finite world where we are already in overshoot. We really need to have a house price crash, recession and reset as we can't have a productive economy using the same old band-aid tricks from the last 40years and expecting the same results in a changing world.
Not just "unsustainable" but in fact a looming economic disaster for a country with champagne (equal to the few other western nations we like to compare ourselves with)...tastes but an embarrassingly low, "beer" income.
I am sure some of our new entrants will have entrapenurial skills with export potential, and some will join our existing export industries, but it seems most will join the vast proportion of our working population just,.."taking in one another's washing",....whilst join the throng who require the largely imported basics of life...houses, cars, clothing, electronics tonics, etc., etc..
Ultimately, and perhaps sooner rather than later, our dollar will crash as foreign lenders require higher risk returns.
With free healthcare, education, law n order and retirement and unemployment. Handout city.
Beautiful description of Auckland there Timmy. Problem is its going to hit the main centres worse than the regions because there are bugger all jobs down here, never has been much.
Low wage? Far from it. Labour is expensive. Try paying for any type of contractor at the moment.
The problem is highly accomodation costs.
Sadly, we've just elected a fellow with a $20 million plus property conflict of interest...
Just depressing really - not what NZ needs at all right now especially as lots will be leaving the home country because its shite not because NZ is wonderful
and how many more in the queue
The good news must be that all the skill shortages are now addressed - although we appear to be still short of flying pig catchers
The good news must be that all the skill shortages are now addressed
Immigration NZ has pulled occupation stats of incoming workers from its website claiming to review "the accuracy of the data". Basically, no one has any knowledge of who has been let into the country for the last 12-15 months.
That's because Immigration removed all the requirements for approving workers for Accredited Employers to import workers. They all just got rubberstamped through. No checking of job skills, the type of job they are being imported for, or that the employer made any effort to find a NZ worker but couldnt. Consequently, tens of thousands of unskilled workers with no real jobs to go to have been imported, by employers who simply pocket the "visa fee" they charge back in their home country (and so outside of NZ Immigration and Tax Depts control)
Note the article on stuff where 85 businesses were found to be having exploitative practices with migrant workers. Great way to dilute the skill base here...
It's OK, most of them just here long enough for a passport so they can get to Australia
it does make you wonder. NZ has also experienced record numbers of new citizen applications over the last 12-18 months, I'd be interested to understand how many in 5 years time are still in NZ.
Very few would be my guess. There are a large number of people working in my field who are recent NZ citizens who immediately moved to Aus when able. They all admit they had no intention of staying in NZ and that Aus was the goal. Australia's stricter entry criteria meant they had little choice.
That one's on Labour! We shall see what immigration policies the new government will implement !
Not entirely. Labour had the constant industrialist whining about cheap worker shortages, along with supported talkback radio foghorning to deal with and of course they caved as the election approached and the whining was affecting voter sentiment. Nats will find it hard to justify topping these numbers, although I'm sure they'll try. Labour have been running Nat policy for the last couple of years already.
Rubbish, it's fully Labour's policies which allowed this number of immigrants. Of course there are always forces pulling in different directions, but the buck stops at the top. Labour made the decision to allow so many people in, period.
Some of that pressure was coming from National MPs on talkback so they would have done the same but earlier.
Labours biggest failing was trying to appease the talkback audience and in the process losing their own voters.
Nothing that National wouldn't have done, they love the immigration Ponzi more than Labour. It's the single unifying policy of all major political parties.
Tired of every second Labour fsck up being something National would have done anyway or somehow Nationals fault.
Labour had sole, total control remember?
Labour completely cocked up covid management and dug themselves a huge hole as they encouraged the people we actually need to leave the country. Then they panicked, opened the floodgates to get out of it and just let anyone in.
It is absolutely clear that Labour, and Labour alone deserves 100% of the blame for both pieces of incompetence.
If only Labour had enjoyed a massive parliamentary majority with which to have done something about it, and in doing so demonstrate their credentials to the voters.
Allowing the unending whining of the "we need cheap labour" brigade (who won't vote Labour anyway), and the talking heads on radio, to set policy direction was and remains madness.
If your cafe can't run without importing cut-rate labour, then do you really have a viable business?
I fully appreciate the need for skilled migration in focus areas e.g. healthcare (heck I was attended to recently by a fantastic team of nurses and specialists in hospital, all of whom - because I got chatting to them once I'd come around - were relatively recent arrivals to NZ) but flogging coffees, booze, and food ain't it.
Where was Labour - a party that is supposed to represent the interests of the worker - pointing out that flooding the country with cheap labour will have the deleterious impacts of 1) lowering wages (or perhaps slowing wage increases) and 2) increasing demand on public services.
I remember those quaint Labour and NZ First promises in the 2017 election campaign to cut immigration to 30,000 people a year. Just another broken and undelivered promise by the Liar In Chief. In reality, Labour oversaw record immigration in 2019, far beyond what National ever allowed in their 9 years. And worst of all, most of those people got permanent residency (and still are) instead of being on temporary visas that expire when they are no longer useful.
I remember those quaint Labour and NZ First promises in the 2017 election campaign to cut immigration to 30,000 people a year.
I can tell you that the cutting of visa approvals did nothing but create a years-long backlog of applications when they could have approved many skilled workers by order of merit and what was in demand at the time. I had a friend be told in 2019 it would take around 6months for their residency application, after 12months waiting and nothing they lost their job through lockdown and was tole they had 3months to get a sponsored role or have to leave NZ after 5 years here. The crux of it was that the pile kept growing of applications once the 30k was achieved and the next in the pile got the 1st look when it refreshed, as opposed to the caliber of the applicant.
I think you misread my post. There was NO cutting of visa approvals. Labour did the opposite, they increased visa approvals to over 244,000 a year - the record for visas granted. If your friend was stuck in the queue it was because there were so many applying it took that long to process. As for Covid, everyone who was in the country in 2021 automatically got permanent residency, and didnt even need to go through the normal process.
Biggest ever gain in net immigration despite biggest ever loss of NZ citizens departing...
Yip this isn’t good - the country is going in the wrong direction when the locals want out (to be replaced by people from countries with lower living standards).
This is DGM stuff.
Less than 10 weeks to go here - that'll be another -5. Doing our bit to help balance the numbers!
Where are you going?
WA. Likely Perth, but unsure about specific location yet - that's up to my wife - she has options all over the state. I'm just the wallet!
The changing face of New Zealand. I worry about what this country with so much potential will look like in 20 years
1. Overly crowded where the idea of getting pipis from Mellon's Bay is a distant memory.
2. Increased med-high density housing and loss of the quatre acre.
3. Crime.
4. Racial tension.
5. Obligation for 2 parents to work until 65 in a middle income family.
Oh, we arrived here about 10-15 years ago.
6. More congestion on the roads, and more potholes as a result
7. Increased pressure on an already over-stretched health service
8. More pressure on maintaining utilities
9. But increased rents/house prices so who cares!?
I notice no mention of any of the positives! Its very hard to survive in a global economy with only 5 million people, especially in the middle of nowhere.
Oh well let's aim for 100 million then! Life will be so much better!
Feel free to list the positives...
Japan is a great place. If they had a better work life balance and spoke English I’d live there. Much more to see and do, easier to get around, much more money. London is great too, I’d live there if it weren’t for the weather. Some people like the NZ hermit lifestyle, but it’s not for everyone.
Yeah yeah yeah but, nah.
For NZ's future, best think of Mumbai or Beijing. Anyway, the world has plenty of overpopulated places that people who enjoy being in close proximity to others. Why change NZ to be yet another one?
Much better hospitality, service. I’ll be moving there at some stage, just need to workout how to make $$ in Japan
Liberal zoning. Good public transport.
Stuff our politicians don't like.
The predictable departure of young ambitious NZers due to National's anti worker / anti renter policies was flagged loud and early .
National voters need to own it.
Lest we forget the pent-up travel demand by the usual numbers of youth who would be going for OE's through 2020-2022 who are all now, after a couple of years working and hopefully saving, heading off to explore the world. It isn't always about the money, young folk just want to try new things and now they have extra motivation to do it when comparing various things like income, lifestyle, and the level of choice.
Be interesting to see the demographics of who's leaving then.
Advised our kid's school earlier this week - the administrator's response was, 'oh, another one'. If young families are moving on, that's not an OE.
Though I do know some early 20's on OEs atm, and some oldies on holidays...
Surely stats.nz's magic formula can tell us that?
Join the Facebook group "Kiwis Moving to Australia" and you will see that hordes of people in their 30's and 40's with kids are leaving. The top questions in the group is about schools and childcare. Followed by "should I sell my house or rent it out?". These are not 20somethings heading off on their OE.
Seriously, you are trying to blame National for people leaving in the year before the election was even held?
Actually, if anything the departures out of the country have slowed down since polling indicated National would win. This however has resulted in the obscene numbers coming into the country becoming readily apparent. With 80,000 net arrivals in October, and 33,000 net arrivals so far in November.
I hope those 119,000 people are all highly skilled workers to plug the essential gaps in our economy and public services, such as Doctors, Nurses, engineers, builders, electricians, plumbers, IT specialists etc
But I highly doubt it, our Government bureaucracy is just not that competent.
Instead we will probably see the country's slow march to third world status with continued poor outcomes in health, education, infrastructure, housing etc.
A disclaimer on the Immigration NZ website says:
8 November 2023: ‘Work applications approved by occupation’ has been removed while we review the accuracy of the data.
Tens of thousands of visas are being issued each month based on the applicants' reported occupations and yet INZ cannot accurately compile this data for public release.
This is the quality of output you get from a Ministry that has increased its workforce by 64% in the last 5 years (excluding Covid response / MIQ).
How is this even remotely acceptable? I would imagine the bosses/managers at INZ will be making bank - there should be some consequences, as in if you can't sort this stuff out go and flip burgers instead (hey presto that's one less burger-flipper we need to import as a 'skilled chef' or whatever).
I predict there will be some high level resignations as the failures are discovered and the higher-ups are made aware. Best they get out before it comes down on them so they can maintain a career at that level.
Sadly, importing people is the only way the government can possibly avoid (or mitigate) a recession. Not that it helps people in NZ.
So what’s the alternative? I understand you voted Act, who support high immigration levels and massive deregulation (but only when it suits them)
The current net gain is not due to Act, it's due to Labour's policies. What the next government will do, we don't know yet.
Act were criticising Labour for not allowing more immigration not so long ago.
At least Winston is generally against high immigration. But who knows what he will do this time.
He can't even seem to work out if he's in Auckland or Wellington, I'm not holding out much hope.
Apparently National low-balled him and he is now playing power games with Luxon.
Strong Stable Government. Coming soon. Maybe.
It artifically makes the governments numbers look good, until the various 'crisis's' occur.
while 71,000 departed long term over the same period
Do they know where they went?
From an article in NZ Herald today:
This net migration loss was made up of 26,400 migrant arrivals and 71,200 migrant departures, provisional estimates released by Stats NZ show.
“Migrant departures of New Zealand citizens are just under record levels,” population indicators manager Tehseen Islam said. “Based on the latest estimates available, just over half of these departures went to Australia.”
Thanks. I wonder how many of those simply used NZ as a route in to Aus?
(and what about the other half?)
It would be interesting to know the numbers of people who use NZ as a back door to Australia for sure. The article mentions the typical Kiwi OE as a driver for departures and I think living through a pandemic with closed borders as opposed to seeing it as a fiction played out on screen may have spurred a lot of people into action to get out and see the world, and good on them. The grass not actually being greener here may see some who settled here return to their country of birth, as well as returning to support ageing parents or unwell siblings.
ABSURD.
The latest figure is the biggest ever migration-driven population gain for any 12 months period.
Massive infrastructure deficit already
Massive housing deficit already
Massive social deficit already
Massive environmental deficit already
We need a population strategy based on maximising wellbeing per capita growth, not this insanity.
Good, bring them in, especially the beautiful Asian woman. I’d still be a virgin if it wasn’t for our immigration policy. Kiwi woman just want large rugby players.
I didn't know asian women like black beards.
You maybe right. My beard is ginger, like my hair, with horizontal stripes. So if you see a very small man with a beard that looks like a red panda bear’s tail, say hi.
🤣
Not sure how long this comment thread will remain...;)
As with cars, competition improves performance. Expensive unreliable high maintenance glamourous European models have long been challenged by low cost reliable, high performing modest Asian models. Now the Chinese are also lifting their game & increasingly available locally; they will soon lead the global market.
From memory, until the 1990s NZ used to assemble vehicles from CKD kit but the only homegrown model I can recollect was the Trekka Trekka - Wikipedia
Disclosure: First wife ~15 years European, 2nd wife ~30 years Chinese
"Expensive unreliable high maintenance glamourous European models have long been challenged by low cost reliable, high performing modest Asian models."
Is that why most people would rather own a toyota, honda, suzuki, kia, byd over a merc, bmw, bentley, audi, range rover ?
I wouldn't speak for others however I had a BMW for 10 years & would never buy another. Currently enjoying Suzuki.
Yeah BMW is a shocker, okay if you buy a new one and sell it a few years later. Hard to beat a Suzuki Swift if you want a cheap economical run about and you can still get one in a manual.
Wholesale importation of GDP growth
GDP per capita tells the real story... and it isn't good
And yet voters fall for it every time...
Jaysus.
Well I'm not surprised, the fireworks going off for Diwali this year far exceeded those going off for Guy Fawkes.
Celebration of European culture is now largely forbidden. Fireworks are only approved for other ethnicities while those for Europeans have been cancelled. Soon they will be banned unless you have an approved "cultural" exception.
I doubt its non-Europeans forbidding it.
One growth industry in NZ is recent arrivals operating small businesses and then sponsoring workers from their home countries to staff the business, and charging the sponsored worker a fee, paid either in cash or in their home country - untraceable by IRD or other authorities in NZ. Only comes to light on the rare occasion that migrant exploitation is reported.
Have seen this in the Vietnamese community, nail salons and restaurants in particular. It is cynical and blatant because the reward outweighs any risk of being caught. Around $40,000 charged per worker appears to be the norm. It becomes a business model copied by other Vietnamese businesses when they see that fraudulent sponsorship and migrant exploitation is not and cannot effectively be policed in NZ. The accredited employer scheme is a joke and Immigration NZ appears to have lost control.
And then the sponsored worker brings in their spouse and children, and the taxpayer picks up the tab for education and health care costs with added pressure on the housing and rental market. The taxpayer is indirectly sponsoring this mess. The previous Labour government caved in to the business lobby on sponsored work visas post covid and this has exacerbated the problem.
What will the new government do about it?
Excellent news - it is a positive thing for this country- they are most welcome.
Sorry but have got a government yet?
Madness.
Unfortunately the New Government won't know that.
"record net migration gain of 119,000 people"
That is more than a new Dunedin in just a year
Population replacement. Define a nation...
So who actually controls the actual numbers coming in? I hope the government has adequately planned for this significant increase in population, by building new dwellings, new power generation, more doctors and hospitals, more roads etc.
That number is almost the size of 3 x Upper Hutt sized cities in just one year
Governments seldom set a number per se. They set a criteria and accept applicants that meet the criteria. And, obviously, these criteria are reviewed from time to time.
I still think it would be common sense for them to have a maximum they could allow. When we have a housing crisis and not enough houses for those already living in NZ, I don't know where they expect them to live.
Probably depends on a number of factors. Imagine this though, you work for Immigration NZ. You have a team of xx because you process xx number of visas per year. Government comes along and says "cut that to 25%". Okay, so who's going to put their hand up first for redundancy?
Not only that, what if individual employment agreements are tailored around KPI's and bonuses structured to number of visa's processed?
One would hope they would focus on quality over quantity, but it is a very fast-paced department I'd imagine.
How long does a visa last before it expires? What I mean is, how many of these people applied for visa ages ago, perhaps during covid, but only decided to arrive this year. Good ol' covid, ay?. Skewing numbers all over the place.
(And as I've said before, don't be fooled. 120k of new arrivals has much less effect than many would have you believe.)
(And as I've said before, don't be fooled. 120k of new arrivals has much less effect than many would have you believe.)
I can’t see how adding the population equivalent of Dunedin wouldn’t have much of an effect? It’s going to have a significant effect, we haven’t added a city the size of Dunedin in the same timeframe, there is the same number of roads, same number of hospitals, the infrastructure hasn’t been keeping up at all.
We do need immigration but the rate it’s being going at is far to high and there has been little regard for the negative externalities we are encountering.
As far as I know the only new hospital we have built is a) not yet built, and b) replacing an existing one. Don't know of any new schools but there is probably a bit of slack in the system given how many students don't regularly attend, and with the tendancy of some schools to be overlooked in favour of others.
We've done ok with roads, although electricity supply might be a challenge.
.....and then along came Winston .....hopefully. Just looked up NZ first policy -
Immigration
- Replace the Accredited Employer Worker Visa with a Critical Skill and Labour Shortage Visa to ensure that Kiwi workers are at the front of the job queue
- Guarantee that immigration policy is based on New Zealand’s interests such as meeting critical skill gaps
- Maintain parent category visa cap at 1000 and ensure that sponsors can adequately support and fund their family during and after migration
- Develop strategies that encourage regionally dispersed immigration so that it lessens the burden on already overloaded urban cities
- Introduce a ‘rural visa scheme’ that will apply to communities of less than 100,000 residents, while placing into law an obligation for migrants to stay in their specified place of settlement until, and two years after, they have secured permanent residency
Population Plan:
- Have a nationwide review to set a 30 year ‘Population Plan’ to gain a majority view on the level of future population numbers. This will enable government to plan infrastructure with consideration for natural population growth, immigration, and attrition via death or emigration
He had the same policies before he went with Jacinda.
Yes, and the Labour +NZF did keep a much tighter control on immigration. It was after 2020, after NZF, that Labour opened the gates.
Not true. 2019 was a record year for immigration. Then the gates closed in 2020. Labour has just returned to what they were already doing in 2019.
"The number of people arriving on work visas peaked at a record 244,896 in 2019, then dropped away sharply to to 69,528 in 2020, and just 5778 in 2021 with pandemic restrictions in place."
See chart https://www.interest.co.nz/public-policy/122486/average-17656-people-ar…
As a landlord with modest rents attracting foreign workers they are all hard working good tenants. I have Russians working forestry, Fiji Indians in retail and building, Indians in telecoms, Pakistani’s in science export, Chin in fish processing, plus a few kiwis on benefits.
"As a landlord with modest rents"
If you are going to make up stories you could at least attempt to make them believable
Are they all in one room?
Sounds like the beginning of a great joke....just waiting for the punchline.
I'm a teacher at one of Hamilton's biggest schools and the change has been noticeable over the year. For example my class of year 10's is now 50% 1st generation immigrants. Of the 8 or 9 students who have been added to the class during the year all are from overseas.
The really interesting thing was how one of the South Africans was complaining that they feel "deceived" and "let down" by the reality of life in NZ (from the quality of schools, the crime, the cost of living, and the difficulty getting around if you don't have a car). They compared the difference in expectations to the menu images at Burger King vs the burger you actually get.
To me the saddest thing about this mess isn't just that my rent is now probably going up even more, but that our govt is complicit in the deception and exploitation of so many people. It is tragic to hear the stories of people who have spent their life savings to get here and learn it isn't the paradise they were led to believe.
The country has really gone down hill hasn't it. The number of dodgy people lurking around Auckland city seems to double every year. We are also falling well behind in liveability, our cities aren't evolving to modern standards like many are overseas, we are becoming more American like (car oriented) while some of the better American cities are becoming more European like.
I don't think the blame can go to a specific party, its been going down hill for a while now. I guess Labour should take a lot of the blame as they had a mandate to fix it and didn't. This NACT government has a mandate to make it worse!
We also saw that in the Lauren Dickerson trial, where some of her depression was caused by the fact that she found NZ an awful place to be, that she felt she had made a big mistake moving her kids here, and that the quality of housing was very poor. Not helped by the fact that immigrants cant even buy a house to live in but must make do with low quality rental stock. The good news is that they only have to stick it out for 4 years, then get citizenship, then they can move to Australia.
Dickason was a time bomb waiting to go off anywhere & should never have been allowed in this country. Probably she should never been allowed IVF to have children in the first place, these clincs should legally require a psych assessment.
"The jury also heard how Dickason searched the internet while still in South Africa about drugs that could be used to overdose children.
McRae said that was evidence Dickason “had thoughts about killing her children” long before the fatal act."
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/timaru-triple-homicide-last-moments-of-di…
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/lauren-dickason-trial-husband-describes-h…
The good news is that they only have to stick it out for 4 years, then get citizenship, then they can move to Australia.
Incorrect, they have to have been in NZ for 5 years since they got their 1st residency visa, be that residency then on to permanent residency, and remember some come on work-to-residence which doesn't count. Then you'll have some on working holiday visas who then get work visas and then on to residency.
The comment by KW above has to be the worst comments ever made on this site.
(conflating the cause of an extremely disturbed mass murderer's actions with NZ's housing issues)
Not surprising. NZ is a safe, (but expensive) haven compared to many places in the world.
And whatever way you look at it NZ is still a lightly populated country.
Just need to spread people around the regions more.
Good luck with that regions are shriking
Any data to back up this assertion? Some may be, but others are growing steadily over time.
Kicking myself I didn't start that kiosk selling tents at AKL airport.
Good to see our government leaders turning on the tap of immigration to the tune of a new Dunedin worth of people each ear.
Unfortunately I can't remember seeing them build a Dunedin size amout of Hospitals, Schools, and all the other infrastructure required in the last 12 months 🙈
Late to the party on this article but there is a major issue here:
1: Births in New Zealand dropped by 3.1% in the year ending September 2023. TFR dropped to 1.58 for all women, down from 1.66 in 2022.
2: +2.7% annual growth, one of the highest rates ever recorded
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