Immigration futures: New Zealand in a global context

Abstract

At no other time in the past century has there been such focused and intense global interest in international migration. Never before has there been such interest, internationally, in how Australia, Canada and New Zealand manage their international migration. These countries have become models for governments elsewhere who are seeking to develop policy that has a more direct impact on the quality of the population flows into their countries.

New Zealand is unusual by OECD standards in that it has a high level of emigration of citizens at the same time that it has a very high per capita rate of immigration. New Zealand’s contemporary migration flows are examined briefly and it is demonstrated that the system is not nearly as dominated by migration from countries in northeast Asia as it was a decade ago.

A more flexible approach to the attainment of permits to reside in a country is being adopted in most countries now. The prospective migrants take the opportunity to assess employment opportunities and the quality of life in a prospective new home (perhaps not their only home either), while working or studying on temporary permits and gaining the sort of local experience that is valued in the points-based immigrant selection systems. The paper concludes with a brief analysis of data relating to transition to residence in New Zealand.