New Zealand has a world-leading programme to attract skilled migrants but Hawke's Bay is missing out on the benefits, a leading academic says.
Professor Paul Spoonley, of Massey University, said encouraging educated and business savvy settlers from overseas to the region would help address major issues Hawke's Bay faces, including an ageing population, a skills shortage and sluggish economic growth.
"You're falling further and further behind, so population growth, if it's not a major agenda item for Hawke's Bay, it should be because you need those skilled workers," Professor Spoonley told an audience of about 100 in Havelock North last night.
"Jobs are not going to stay in the Bay if you don't have that supply of skilled workers, of younger workers."
The Auckland-based pro vice-chancellor of Massey's College of Humanities and Social Sciences grew up in Havelock North and is an eminent sociologist who has written or edited more than 25 books on race, immigration, employment, national identity and population issues in New Zealand and global contexts.