migration

People Matter
An economy that has big swings in population growth rates will have big swings in economic fortune as well. Welcome to NZ....
6 October 2005 - Gareth Morgan

Migration Migraines
New Zealand's labour laws make employing new migrants a high risk activity for employers. All the love and understanding in the world doesn't prevent employers having to move on somebody whose habits compromise the harmony of the workplace. Better not to take the risk in the first place....
16 September 2004 - Gareth Morgan

Labour's Third World Solution
People are pouring into New Zealand, equivalent to 2% of the population per annum. So in 50 years we'll be replaced. Has Winston a point?...
13 November 2002 - Gareth Morgan

Population Policy needs overhaul not a tune-up
The graphs illustrate a major difference between New Zealand and Australia. One country scores net immigration consistently, has experienced a steady contribution to its population growth from that immigration, and continues on that course. The other - us - has a far more chequered immigration past and the results speak ...
21 February 2001 - Gareth Morgan

Fewer people, smaller meals
As the graph indicates, it is not our tradition to achieve strong growth in GDP per capita when population growth is faltering. Indeed the two move very much in tandem - when population growth is strong so is the rate of wealth generated per head. This puts in context the damage Winston Peters inflicted with his 1996 jihad against immigration of...
28 September 2000 - Gareth Morgan

Fewer immigrants, lower quality
Much has been written about the brain drain - the rise in the numbers of people leaving New Zealand permanently who have a higher-than-average skill quotient. That the people involved are more than the traditional exodus of early-twenties off to do their OE is the relevant point. Flush from election success new deputy Prime Minister Anderton...
1 November 1999 - Gareth Morgan

Wait Up, I'm Coming Over
Since 1960 the rate of increase in Australia's population has averaged 1.6% pa - 1% of which has come from natural increase and 0.6% from net immigration. By contrast over the same period New Zealand's population has grown by 1.1% pa - 1% of which has come from natural increase and 0.1% from net immigration. Surprise! - Australians and New Zealanders...
1 September 1999 - Gareth Morgan

Our Cleverest Export: People
New Zealand is losing its mind and nobody seems to care. The outflow of New Zealanders continues to climb and the data tells us those leaving are educated people in their thirties with young families, leaving for better prospects abroad - particularly in North America. A trend like this - which similarly inflicted Ireland during its years of...
17 November 1998 - Gareth Morgan

Immigration at the Crossroads
The lack of a coherent immigration policy for New Zealand is manifest in the terrible figures for net immigration for the year ended June - a net inflow of just 450 people! Clearly the NZ First-inspired change in immigration policy has demolished it as a source of economic growth. Thanks to the xenophobia on which that party was founded, New...
4 August 1998 - Gareth Morgan

Immigration Policy: Reactionary, Low-Brow
One of the less coherent aspects of the coalition government's policy initiatives has been its approach to immigration. Starting from a Winston Peters' inspiration that it is bad, government has tightened up - but to an extent that, from an economic perspective, is damaging. Over the 12 months ended February we had a net inflow of long term migrants...
31 March 1998 - Gareth Morgan

More Vision Required
It is lamentable that the immigration debate is dominated by politicians and others who appear to know little about how and why economies change over time and how migration affects this transformation process.

The pro-immigration campaigns have usually been led by those who wanted to maximise NZ’s development, employer groups seeking a ready supply of labour and others who have feared ...
17 July 1996 - Gareth Morgan

Immigration Debate - Still In the Gutter
The apprehension over immigration that Winston Peters has stirred may well be delivering a shift of political capital his way, but there is little evidence as yet that those who have rallied to his nationalist call to arms, have thought much beyond fear of the yellow peril and selling NZ out to foreign interests.

The dimensions of the immigration issue go well beyond those grasped by the ...
13 June 1996 - Gareth Morgan

Opposition to Immigration: Why Let the Arguments Get in the Way?
Vehement opposition to immigration, particularly from Asian countries, in New Zealand from an ill-informed and xenophobic rabble persists despite overwhelming evidence that immigration will improve our long term economic prospects.

In 1988 The Institute of Policy Studies published detailed research by Jacques Poot, Ganesh Nana and Bryan Philpott on the effects of migration on the New ...
2 April 1996 - John Carran