Labour Market Reports - Archive
Quarterly Migration Update at a glance
This section contains archived information that has been retained for reference purposes. To view current reports, please go to the Labour Market Information section.
Published: 24 May 2007
Description
This report examines trends in permanent and long-term (PLT) migration using data collected by Statistics New Zealand from arrival and departure cards. These data cover migrants intending to stay or leave for a year or more. This analysis is supported by administrative data on immigration approvals from the Department of Labour. This report is produced quarterly.
Link to full report
Quarterly Migration Update HTML | PDF [79 KB, 6 pages]
Summary
Net migration in the year to March 2007 was 12,100.
Migration fell in the last four months from a peak of 14,800 in November 2006.
However, net migration has increased from 9,700 a year earlier.
The recent decrease in net migration has been driven by growing departures of New Zealanders, as well as fewer New Zealanders returning from overseas.
We expect that decreases over the last quarter will continue in the short term with annual net PLT migration expected to decrease to close to the historical average of 10,000 over the next year.
Net migration has been driven by large net outflows of New Zealanders offsetting net inflows of non-New Zealanders.
The increase in non-New Zealand citizen arrivals has been driven mainly by increased arrivals from Asia, particularly South-East Asia.
Departures of New Zealanders to Australia have risen in the last year with particularly large increases in the latest quarter. This continues a pattern of strong rises in the previous two years.
Inflows from traditional source countries including the United Kingdom and Australia have declined in recent years while there have been large increases in the number of net arrivals of citizens from less traditional source countries in Asia including the Philippines and Malaysia.
Related information
External Migration data from Statistics New Zealand [external link]
Immigration New Zealand homepage [external link]
Immigration New Zealand research homepage [external link]
Future updates
This is a regular report – the next update is due in August 2007. Reports from previous periods can be found in archive
Author or contact details
For further information please contact the Labour Market Analysis team