Editorial: Immigration needed but controlled

Queenstown residents protest rental availability in the city causing widespread homelessness. Photo / Otago Daily Times

EDITORIAL

Coming through a pandemic was always going to throw challenges but few generate more political heat than our immigration settings.

Each week is met with more demands for skillsets to be added to the “Green List” and allowing more overseas workers to fly in to fill vacancies. There is a perception that New Zealand is moving too slow and is missing out to other territories that are snapping up the few able-bodied people available.

The Productivity Commission naturally wants improved productivity and labour market outcomes by better connecting the immigration, skills, training and education systems.

The Government, via the Finance and Immigration ministers, meanwhile says reforms under way will drive a more coordinated, connected and longer-term approach to workforce planning and development. There are regional skills leadership groups, industry transformation plans, workforce development councils, and the reform of vocational education.

All of this is positive noise and, hopefully, can be matched with action.

A major problem with immigration policy is that it’s most often dictated by public sentiment and what politicians think voters are demanding rather than what’s appropriate for the country. This is given even more weight in an election year.

Massive worker shortages across numerous industries have led to calls for more immigration but these cries seldom acknowledge infrastructure capacity.

Any effort to improve immigration policies needs to start on the administration side, given the long wait times and uncertainty that migrants often face.

The real challenge is getting longer-term settings right, and this must include a consideration of infrastructure and local government policies.

Any discussion about immigration needs to be framed in the context of the capacity of our infrastructure to meet the needs of an increased number of people. We all saw what happened with housing when we threw open the gates during the period of the so-called “rockstar economy”.

Queenstown is proof of the need for a more coordinated approach. Protests were staged this month over the lack of accommodation available for workers who had been enticed to staff the burgeoning hospitality sector.

Average rents were up 10.8 per cent in 2016, 16 per cent in 2017, 7.4 per cent in 2018 and 9.6 per cent in 2019, before Covid lockdowns and border closures hit the tourism hotspot. When New Zealand began courting international visitors again, rents jumped back by 6.9 per cent - more than the 6.6 per cent national average.

Opening every category from every sector that is crying out for workers will only re-ignite the property market and relegate more existing home hunters further down waiting lists.

Yes, the Government needs to allow people in to fill some of the more chronic shortages in essential services. But a tide of arrivals has to be accommodated. There is little point in laying out the welcome mat and then leaving those who turn up to sleep on the street.