Indian migrants are now the most prolific in New Zealand

Statistics New Zealand has today said that the annual net gain of migrants to New Zealand has reached 60,000, however the chief reason for the record breaking net gain is due to the lower number of people leaving NZ for Australia.

New Zealand has in the past been viewed as an access country to Australia by many migrants, and there was a perception that NZ’s immigration requirements were easier.

While most of the gains came from India (12,700), China (8400) the Philippines (4500) and Britain (3800), the chief reason for the overall gain is the lack of movement to Australia… source

Once a NZ passport had been obtained, many migrants used it to move directly to Australia where they could work and live indefinitely. However, more stringent immigration and citizenship standards now mean that NZ isn’t that easy any more, and the trans-Tasman flow has been reduced.

It is most interesting to see that people from India, Chine and the Philippines now make up the majority of New Zealand’s new migrants, vastly outnumbering those from traditional source countries such as the UK. Does this mean E2NZ.org needs to write more content for these migrant groups?

We’re certainly seeing a growing readership in the Asian sub-continent, though not so much from China.

Let us know your thoughts.

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Our migrant tales series – first hand accounts of the migrant experience of New Zealand LINK