The record net outflow of New Zealanders migrating to Australia and further afield should be seen as an "orange light" rather than a red light, according to a research note by The New Zealand Initiative.
The report, Are Kiwis fleeing?, examines recent migration trends and finds that while the net outflow of 60,100 New Zealand citizens in the year to May 2024 is significant, it is currently offset by a near-record inflow of migrants who are likely more highly qualified than the average New Zealander.
"It is an orange light because New Zealand needs to be competitive with Australia if it is to retain its most able and productive citizens," says Dr Bryce Wilkinson, Senior Fellow at The New Zealand Initiative and author of the report. "Australia is a more productive country and pays higher wages."
Key findings from the report include:
Key findings from the report include:
- Despite the record outflow of citizens, New Zealand experienced a net inflow of 82,800 migrants in the year to May 2024, representing 1.6% of the resident population.
- Immigrants to New Zealand tend to be more highly qualified than the native-born population, and they outnumber those leaving.
- Studies have found little evidence of significant negative impacts on employment or wages for native-born New Zealanders due to immigration.
While the data does not support the notion of a straightforward 'brain drain' crisis, the report warns that action is needed. "It is a warning that the new Government needs to make real progress on multiple fronts if New Zealanders are to feel better about their prospects in this country," Dr Wilkinson concluded.
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Dr Bryce Wilkinson is a Senior Fellow at The New Zealand Initiative, Director of Capital Economics, and former Director of the New Zealand Treasury. His articles can be seen HERE. - where this article was sourced.
8 comments:
The Kiwis leaving must be rather low on the IQ scale if they are worse than our incoming shop assistants and truck drivers and bottle shop workers.
Luxon - figured out why so many Kiwis are leaving ?
Stop sitting on your hands and refusing to deal with the big brown elephant in the room.
what a load of rubbish, immigrants coming in here have degrees and education that are not nearly the quality and standards of the education we have here. The indians I have to work for havent got the local understanding of how things actually work and so tend to stuff things up. Also Michael Reddell has a whitepaper on the impacts of immigration to the local population and its all bad. Immigration is a disgrace and it needs to stop.
The report does not consider one serious push factor that is affecting those jumping out of NZ and that is the Maorification/co-governance point that National seem so intent upon playing down/ignoring. It would be interesting to know just how many of those leaving have an element of being pissed off with that continual bombardment via the msm and other woke sources. The DEI silliness is present in most Countries. However, whereas in many places it is seeing a pushback, NZ seems to be lagging in this regard and so those who do not want to live in a dystopian nightmare are highly likely to be up and going. We came from Australia to retire but are seriously thinking that was a mistake - lovely place being stuffed up by stupidity - and will likely deal with that accordingly. Absent swift remedial action by the coalition we will be off because if they do not deal with it effectively and restore true democracy there is no point in staying here.
Good grief. Wilkinson is drawing conclusions from data. More than can be said for some of the other commentators above,. Who knows; perhaps Muldoon was right when he famously commented that the so-called brain-drain to Australia simply increased the average IQ of both countries. And, if it's now a net inflow, New Zealand is probably even better off. Read Immigration New Zealand's Green List that sets out the occupations that are required as a condition of permanent residence if you want evidence.
This is absolute rot. The immigrants coming in are far worse qualified than the people leaving. How many more shopkeepers and taxi drivers do we need in this country? Meanwhile we are loosing many Police / Nurses / IT workers etc to Aussie
Using my own extended family as an example - all NZ-born but now living in Australia:
A senior market researcher/project manager
A specialist software developer
A senior pilot (captain)
A senior marketing communications specialist.
If New Zealand has managed to attract immigrants to replace these departures, they will be people who are prepared to work for half - yes, half - the salaries being received for these positions in Australia.
If this small sample is reflected across all industries and vocations, it spells a dire future for New Zealand.
my family has given Australia Lawyers, Doctors, a Linguist, a designer, a probation officer, a multiskilled trades man with 3 trades, a marketing executive, a psychologist, an accountant, a builder, a marine biologist and a teacher.
So yeah no loss at all. all easily replaced.
How come rural NZ has no doctors then????
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