Executive summary

Purpose of this report

This report has been prepared in response to a request for information for the OECD's 2010 edition of International Migration Outlook. This annual publication is an output of the OECD's Continuous Reporting System on Migration (known by its French acronym SOPEMI), now in its 32nd year.^[1]

Content of this report

This New Zealand report utilises data from existing sources and overviews key findings and policy developments for the 2008/09 financial year. The report covers:

• migration movements
• flows of refugees and asylum seekers
• the growth and characteristics of the overseas-born population
• the employment status of the overseas-born population
• principal developments in migration policy
• New Zealand citizenship
• public opinion on immigration
• migrants and entrepreneurship
• return migration due to the economic crisis.

This report contains information for the 2008/09 financial year. Relevant data from the 2006 New Zealand census is also included. Where available, a gender breakdown of data has been provided. Information requested about New Zealand-born people where either one or both parents are overseas-born is not provided in the census data, so is unavailable.

Migration movements

In 2008/09, there were 88,300 permanent and long-term (PLT) arrivals and 75,700 PLT departures. Arrivals exceeded departures by 12,500 compared with a net inflow of 4,700 in the previous year.

There were 46,097 people approved for permanent residence in 2008/09 through 24,572 applications. Sixty-two percent of approvals were through the Skilled/Business Stream, 30 percent through the two family sponsored streams,^[2] and 8 percent through the International/Humanitarian Stream. The United Kingdom was the largest source country of permanent residence approvals in 2008/09 (19 percent).

Around 1.4 million people were granted a temporary visitor, student, or work permit on their arrival in New Zealand in 2008/09. New Zealand's tourism industry has been adversely affected by the global economic recession, with total visitor numbers in 2008/09 down 3 percent on the previous year.

In 2008/09, 136,481 individuals were issued work permits, which was a 2 percent increase on the previous year. Although some categories of work permit showed strong growth, these were largely offset by a large decrease in the number of essential skills work permits (labour-related migration). The United Kingdom is New Zealand's largest source of temporary workers, many of whom enter as working holidaymakers.

In 2008/09, 73,926 international students were approved to study in New Zealand. This was a 6 percent increase from 2007/08. China remains the largest source country of international students (20 percent of those approved to study). India continued its strong growth as a source of international students, increasing 42 percent in 2008/09.

Flows of refugees and asylum seekers

Asylum claims have fallen significantly over the last decade. In 2008/09, 246 people sought asylum in New Zealand. Iran is currently the largest source country of asylum seekers. New Zealand accepts up to 750 refugees annually as per its Refugee Quota. In 2008/09, Bhutan and Myanmar were the leading source countries of quota refugees.

Stock of overseas-born population

As at 30 June 2009, the population of New Zealand was estimated at 4,315,800. As of the 2006 census, 23 percent of people usually living in New Zealand were overseas-born. The greatest source regions were the United Kingdom/Irish Republic and Asia, each contributing 29 percent of the overseas-born population.

Employment status of the overseas-born population

The Household Labour Force Survey, published by Statistics New Zealand, shows that the labour force participation rate for those who have resided in New Zealand for 1-10 years was 68.8 percent in 2008/09, which is very similar to the national annual average rate of 68.6 percent. The unemployment rate for those same migrants was 6.7 percent in 2008/09, which was higher than the national annual average unemployment rate of 5.0 percent.

New Zealand's Longitudinal Immigration Survey provides information on migrants' labour market activity at each wave of the survey. The survey showed that 74.3 percent of migrants were employed 18 months after gaining residence (wave 2) compared with 71.2 percent 6 months after residence (wave 1).

Principal developments in immigration policy

The new Immigration Act 2009 was passed into law in November 2009. The Act is a complete rewrite from first principles of existing legislation, which dates from 1987. It is expected to take 12-18 months to implement the new legislation.

The major policy developments over the past year have been the introduction of the incoming Government's manifesto commitments. These commitments include streamlining the Recognised Seasonal Employer Policy, introducing a new Supplementary Seasonal Employment Policy, and redesigning business policies. A new business migration package was introduced in July 2009, which includes two new Investor Categories and a new Entrepreneur Category.

Other developments included work to limit the permit duration of lower-skilled temporary work applications, the removal of occupations from the Essential Skills in Demand lists, the Plan of Action to Prevent People Trafficking, and enhancements to the Victims of Domestic Violence Policy.

New Zealand citizenship

The most recent amendments to the Citizenship Act were in 2005, which increased the time applicants must have been ordinarily resident in New Zealand before making their application. The 2005 changes also introduced the disqualifying convictions system, but no changes have been made to the language requirement, and there are no cultural or economic tests for citizenship.

Public opinion on immigration

Recent research has shown that New Zealanders' attitudes towards migrants and ethnic diversity are largely positive. New Zealanders' endorsement of multiculturalism was found to be significantly higher than that of people from other countries included in an international comparison.

Other research showed that perceptions of some immigrant groups were more favourable than others, with less favourable attitudes towards immigrants from non-English-speaking countries.

Both studies found that tertiary-educated respondents had more-positive attitudes towards immigrants.

Migrants and entrepreneurship

New Zealand's business migration policies aim to boost economic performance by making New Zealand more attractive for business and entrepreneurial migrants. A new policy for business migrants came into effect from July 2009. The new policy is designed for migrants who want to invest or set up a business in New Zealand and gain permanent residence.

For investor migrants, the three categories of the former Active Investor Category (2007) have been streamlined into two categories. For entrepreneurial migrants the new policy introduces a Entrepreneur Plus Category that complements the existing Entrepreneur Category.

Return migration and the economic recession

New Zealand's immigration policy settings are sensitive to changing labour market conditions. The global economic downturn has resulted in lower levels of temporary labour migration, a combined effect of lower demand and higher decline rates. The recession has also had a significant impact on the migration flow of New Zealand citizens with more New Zealanders returning to, and far fewer leaving, New Zealand.

One of the Government's immigration policy priorities is to attract overseas New Zealanders back to New Zealand. Since July 2008, the Department of Labour has given priority to partnership residence applications where the sponsor is an expatriate New Zealander.

Research shows that around 20-25 percent of migrants approved permanent residence in New Zealand leave long term. Migrants leave New Zealand for many reasons, and it is too early to determine whether the recession will have any significant impact on migrants' long-term departures.

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