New Zealand saw its highest monthly net migration gain for five months in July, with large numbers of students boosting the net gain to above 5,000.
Statistics NZ said there were provisionally 5,900 migrant arrivals on student visas in July 2024.
"This is the highest for a month since 6,000 in February 2023."
It is provisionally estimated that 17,453 migrants arrived in the country in July, which is the highest tally since February of this year.
While the numbers of inbound migrants are down on the peak monthly levels of up to 25,000 seen after the borders re-opened, the numbers are still on a monthly basis generally well above the 11,000-12,000 a month seen through most of 2019 before the pandemic.
But departures are higher too, with an estimated 12,143 in July. Since February the outbound numbers have been consistently in the 12,000-13,000 range. In 2019 outward migrants were mostly in a 6,000-9,000 monthly range.
All of the migration figures are provisional estimates and Stats NZ attaches all due health warnings to them because the figures don't become finalised till 16 months after the event and generally there are fewer revisions the more time goes on.
The figures are therefore subject to potentially substantial revisions, with Stats NZ advising that the figures are more reliable the closer it comes to the 16 month finalisation period.
Stats NZ is estimating that in the 12 months to July, total net migration was 67,201, which is down from 71,710 in the 12 months to June. The peak level for 12 months was 136,745 as of October last year.
The figures for the 12 months to July 2024 are made up from 200,803 inbound migrants and 133,601 departing migrants.
The number of departing migrants is (provisionally) a record for a 12 month period.
Stats NZ's population indicators manager Tehseen Islam said New Zealand’s net migration rate is down on last year, "but is still relatively high by historical standards".
High net migration rates in 2023 and 2024 "mainly reflect the large number of migrant arrivals to New Zealand following the relaxation of COVID-19-related travel and border restrictions, both in New Zealand and overseas, from 2022".
"New Zealand’s net migration rate in 2023 was the highest since the late 1870s, when New Zealand’s population was under one million," Islam said.
55 Comments
I'm sure they'll all train to be doctors and engineers who will contribute to our standard of living and not just work as underpaid slaves or become our landlords.
What we have is insanely ass-backwards. The government tries to workout how many people it can feed into the economy rather than how the economy can best feed our own people. Immigration undermines our standard of living in an economy that would otherwise self correct for things like poor wages or inflated costs of housing and food since a capitalist owner can simply import more people to undermine the plebs' bargaining position.
I'm sure they'll all train to be doctors and engineers who will contribute to our standard of living and not just work as underpaid slaves or become our landlords.
Given that an elected MP of one of our left of center parties 'allegedly' was involved in the exploitation of migrants for self interest, it's not a good reflection on Aotearoa.
Do most Aotearoans see migrants as legitimate citizens, economic widgets, or part of a plan to rescue the Ponzi?
Not every Kiwi becomes a doctor or an engineer either. But some of the migrants might actually arrive here as qualified doctors or engineers, or their kids might become doctors or engineers.
The most prosperous economy in the world- USA, is built mostly on/by immigrants and/or their children. Go figure.
Every new immigrant means more business for the local grocery store, cafe, rental, etc. it stimulates the economy
That's a false equivalent. The US is different since they have a critical mass of talent driving successful mega corporations which attracts more talent which further improves their prosperity.
NZ is the opposite though since we are not a desirable country we don't get talent here. We get people who put more pressure on our infrastructure than they produce in wealth.
Immigration is a necessity, however incorrectly targeted, and excessive immigration for the wrong purposes, is the issue. I like meeting new people form different ways of life to challenge, question and broaden my mind and opinions. I don't however agree with importing excessive numbers of people on the basis of the mass retirement going on and the need for current taxpayers to pay the pensions going out. Always look for, and focus on the cause, not the effect.
What's happening is a rapid displacement of citizens and the Kiwi culture as many leave New Zealand. I have no idea about the skill sets of who's coming in but once they get PR many of them won't hessitate to jump ship to oz for better money. We can already see many non-citzens leaving NZ, but I don't know in those numbers who's a student or holiday maker and who was actually working. Many of these immigrants are also getting used as cannon fodder, sold this idea of a great life style in the west by ruthless immigration agents, so they sell up everything and come to NZ only to find they can't afford to live here, or have no quality of life. Problem is, they lose so much money coming that it becomes very difficult or sometimes impossible to return. At some point this ponzi scheme will break.
Yes and no
I visited Beijing in May. It’s a great city, and certainly some aspects of life are better than here - public transport, sense of community, crime
But other aspects would seem inferior to here, in terms of quality of life. Climate, environment, stress levels
Interestingly, no political party in NZ seems to have anything to say about immigration, and the public are largely complacent with the status quo it seems. Other countries have seen a real anti-migrant backlash but in NZ that sentiment is directed more at Māori than it is at immigrants.
So what?
that has very little if anything to do with race, and everything to do with generally being bottom of the socio-economic scrap heap.
go to the deprived parts of Europe and you will see WHITE people drawn to gangs, neo-nazism etc. And where do they come from? The bottom of the economic heap and dysfunctional families
The anti-migrant backlash is related to the amount of crime. Here in NZ its not the Asian migrants who are committing most of the crime. Unlike Germany or Sweden where migrants have fuelled a rise in crime.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1901453/sweden-civil-war-migrant-c…
Actual border crossings full year to July 2024 was 57,000. If the estimate is 10,000 higher than that at 67,000, then it's assumed that 10,000 departures are temporary and will come back.
So then, looking at what happened from March through to July; 155,000 people left. The same period last year, 63,000 people left.
Yes I'm cherry picking because March saw a deep change in migration.
Stats NZ are estimating 10,000 of those 155,000 will come back. What about the other 145,000? Gone.
Which will embed our account deficit further, good thing we have appetite for more private debt to fill the gap! Oh wait... no..
Oh well, good thing we used all that private debt to build a resilient economy and world class services and infrastructure! Oh wait... no...
The future is more govt spending. If people don't like it, well, they can leave too I guess?
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