Brain drain: Signs of recovery but immigration challenges remain

RSE workers from Vanuatu pick a kiwifruit crop. Photo / Jamie Troughton, Dscribe Media Services

New Zealand continues to struggle to attract workers but the brain drain showed signs of stabilising in August - with a small net migration gain of 47.

There were 7851 migrant arrivals in August and 7804 departures, new figures from StatsNZ show.

On an annual basis, New Zealand recorded a net loss of 11,000 people. That figure comprised 10,300 New Zealand citizens and 600 non-New Zealand citizens.

Overall, the annual figure represented a small improvement over the year to July - which saw a net loss of 12,250.

But departures to Australia remain strong.

There was a provisional net migration loss of 7700 people to Australia in the year ended March 2022.

This was made up of 15,100 migrant arrivals from Australia, and 22,800 migrant departures from New Zealand.

Traditionally, there has been a net migration loss from New Zealand to Australia, StatsNZ said.

This averaged nearly 30,000 a year during 2004-2013, and about 3000 a year during 2014-2019.

Like many countries around the world, New Zealand is in the grip of a labour market squeeze which is slowing business growth and pushing up wages.

Opposition parties have called on the Government to relax immigration rules to attract more workers.

This morning Act immigration spokesman James McDowall said the data showed the "brain drain was well and truly on".

"People are struggling to get into the country because of Immigration New Zealand's archaic regulations and slow processing times making it near impossible.

Departures continue to beat arrivals as New Zealand faces net migration challenge. Photo / Alex Burton

"Immigration New Zealand needs to start thinking like a recruitment agency rather than a security guard. We need to immediately reopen the Skilled Migrant Category.

"Orchards can't get fruit pickers. Building sites can't get builders. Hospitals can't get nurses. Farms can't get milkers."

The shortages of essential workers were creating a wage-price spiral and adding to inflation, he said.

Immigration Minister Michael Wood today announced that the skilled migrant visa category paused during the height of Covid-19 and border closures, will reopen along with the "parents" category from mid-November.

He said consultation would also begin on a new uncapped and "simplified" points system for migrants who fall outside existing programmes.

In the past few weeks, the Government has also tweaked migration rules to allow 3000 more seasonal workers and loosen qualification requirements for some skilled positions, like chefs.

National Party immigration spokeswoman Erica Stanford said the overhaul was well overdue.

"Serious questions need to be asked about why this reopening of an existing visa category couldn't have occurred months ago," she said.

"National has persistently called on the Government to open the skilled migrant category to support Kiwi businesses during the worst labour shortage in 50 years."

Both migrant arrivals and migrant departures are currently well below the levels experienced during the 2010s when they averaged 126,900 and 93,300 a year, respectively.

After 27 months of mainly net migration gains of New Zealand citizens amounting to 31,900, the last 10 months has seen net migration losses of New Zealand citizens amounting to 11,400.

In contrast, after 24 months of net migration losses of non-New Zealand citizens amounting to 30,900, the last five months had net migration gains of non-New Zealand citizens amounting to 6,000.

New Zealand has usually had an annual net migration gain of non-New Zealand citizens and an annual net migration loss of New Zealand citizens.

Meanwhile, the removal of final border restrictions had seen the number of short-term visitor arrivals surge.

Annual arrivals into New Zealand exceeded 1 million in the August 2022 year, Stats NZ said today. This is the first time this has occurred since the December 2020 year.

There were just under 1.3 million arrivals in the 12 months to August 2022 - well up on the August 2021 year (400,300).

That was still short of the 7.1 million arrivals in the year to August 2019 (before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Overseas visitor arrivals were 541,000 in the August 2022 year, up 330,000 from the August 2021 year. The biggest changes were in arrivals from Australia (up 202,000), the United States (up 21,000) and the United Kingdom (up 16,000).

"Arrivals to New Zealand have been increasing each month from March 2022, following the gradual relaxation of Covid-19 related border restrictions," said StatsNZ population indicators manager Tehseen Islam.

"For the August 2022 year, 94 per cent of the arrivals came in the last six months."