IMMIGRATION POLICY OF NEW ZEALAND

Immigration residence policy divides immigrants into three streams:

- Skilled/Business- {60%} Applicants are awarded points for their characteristics with anyone who reaches a minimum total number of points given residence. Applicants receive most points if they are highly qualified, under 35, have a job offer in New Zealand.

- Family sponsored (32% of total}-This is for family members of previous immigrants.

- International/Humanitarian {8% of total}-This stream is for refugees, and other international and humanitarian {eg.domestic violence policy} residence application.     

For immigration policy the starting point is the ability of the population to determine on which terms to admit immigrants. From this view, immigration policy is to select immigrants that will bring greatest benefit to the population. Immigration policy is all about selecting who will be successful migrants, in bringing benefit to New Zealand. So immigration policy is crucially about trying to select people who will be successful migrants, in the sense of bringing high net benefits to New Zealand.

New Zealand’s current immigration policy has a number of positive points:

- The emphasis on skilled migration is a good idea.

- The selection process is transparent with clear decision criteria.

- The selective process is responsive to demand pressures allowing for more stability in the flow of new immigrants.

- New Zealand is clearly an attractive country to migrants, many of them highly skilled.

A key impact of immigration is on the labor market. Immigrants create as many jobs as they fill, and do not increase unemployment for New Zealanders, but immigration may slightly reduce wages for some group of workers. Evidence from New Zealand studies find that immigrants contribute more in taxes than they consume in tax-funded services.

There is no practical way to settle on the “right” level of immigration. The number of migrants that will bring the highest level of benefit to New Zealand residents is highly impossible to determine with accuracy, so also the search for skilled, family, and humanitarian immigrants is the search of immigration policy. There is no magic formula to determine the size of New Zealand’s population, the perfect number of migrants in any year, or the ideal composition of migrant flows. While it will never be sure about the optimal level of immigration it is important that immigration policy is stable, transparent and predictable. This will benefit both potential migrants and residents by promoting certainty.