Migration patterns 'whitening'

By AUDREY YOUNG

Britain is again becoming the greatest source of immigrants to New Zealand, a change which is meeting a mixed response.

Of all approvals for permanent residence in the last financial year, which ended last week, 20.87 per cent came from Britain.

The next highest source was from China, with 12.3 per cent of approvals, then India with 7.8 per cent and South Africa with 6.7 per cent.

In the previous four years, the proportion coming from Britain was a lot lower: for the 2000 year, British immigrants comprised 14.28 per cent, and in the following years it was 12.7 per cent, 12.4 per cent and 13.8 per cent.

The Immigration Service's latest selection from the pool this week reflected a similar "whitening" trend, with 25 per cent of likely immigrants coming from Britain, 19 per cent from China, 13 per cent from India and 7 per cent from South Africa.

The drop in immigrants from non-English-speaking countries is thought to be linked to the introduction of a tougher English language test in November 2002, rather than the new invitation-only system instituted last December.

Immigration Minister Paul Swain said any change to the ethnic make-up of immigrants was not intentional and it would take at least a year to get a clear idea of trends.

"There is no doubt that the English language requirement is going to have some impact but how big an impact is simply not clear," he said.

"The policy is not country-specific. It is designed to get the skills that we need and the English language change was to ensure that we can get good settlement outcomes from the people who come here."

Asked to comment on the "whitening" of New Zealand's source of immigration, he said: "It's not by design. It is by being much more targeted on the skills that are needed, much more targeted on the job offer and we also want good settlement outcomes."

But Progressives deputy leader Matt Robson said there was an "underlying philosophy" since colonial settlement that somehow it was better for New Zealand's development if there was a larger pool who were of English origin.

"That thread has always run through."

Mr Robson said more resources could go into developing English-language skills rather than making it a hurdle.

With the downturn in English language schools, there were now plenty of unemployed second-language teachers.

Mr Robson would not say that his Government's tougher language test was designed to reduce Asian immigration, but said: "Many of the colleagues I work with don't understand that what seems to be rational, a higher requirement for English, can be a discriminatory barrier."

Many of the most successful settlers in New Zealand had little English, such as the Dutch and Dalmatians.

National immigration spokesman Wayne Mapp said he believed the latest proportions "reflect balanced immigration".

"The reality is New Zealand is proving attractive from a wide variety of countries," said Dr Mapp.

"I would have thought that was a good thing. You do not want everybody to be coming from one place."

He believed India would become an increasingly significant source of New Zealand immigrants because they were highly qualified in professional jobs and had good English.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said his party had never taken a race-based view on immigration.

"Our focus is on bringing people from the First World to this country rather than replacing our population with the Third World."

As much as that had changed with British immigrants making up 20 per cent, "it doesn't represent a significant change at all".

"There is a change but it's not where they come from, it's whether the people coming here are fully skilled, and qualified to pick up employment, and all the evidence profoundly demonstrates that it is not the case."