Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Simon Laurent: NZ Association of Migration and Investment Chair on net migration hitting a two year high

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Simon Laurent: NZ Association of Migration and Investment Chair on net migration hitting a two year high · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

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  Speaker 1: The migration data for July also shows we're quite an
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  Speaker 1: attractive place to lay roots. Migrant arrivals for the year
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  Speaker 1: were up 5%, the number of us leaving down 4%. Overall,
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  Speaker 1: that's an annual net migration of over $ 20, 000. We have
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  Speaker 1: 20,000 people, should I say, something we haven't seen since 2024.
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  Speaker 1: But it's all about dollars as well. Simon Laurent is
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  Speaker 1: an immigration expert and chair of the New Zealand Association
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  Speaker 1: of Migration and Investment and joins me now. Simon, good
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  Speaker 1: morning to you.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Andrew.
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  Speaker 1: What makes us a hot place to move to these days?
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's probably the same thing that's always made us
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  Speaker 2: a hot destination or has done for many years. And
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  Speaker 2: that is the security and safety of New Zealand, the
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  Speaker 2: quality of life, not the salaries, I should say. And
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  Speaker 2: possibly concerns about international security are causing people to think
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  Speaker 2: about coming somewhere safe. Look, I mean, just to put
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  Speaker 2: this in context, the net arrivals figures are pretty much
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  Speaker 2: the same as they were for more than a decade
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  Speaker 2: until 2014. And in a sense, I don't see anything
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  Speaker 2: new here, quite frankly. What we did have was a glitch.
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  Speaker 2: Up to 2019, there was a massive influx of people.
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  Speaker 2: Then we had COVID. After COVID, we had basically the
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  Speaker 2: gates were thrown open. And now we're settling down again.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, the kids are stopping leaving. They're stopping leaving because
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  Speaker 1: they're not going to Australia because Australia's economy is tanking.
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  Speaker 1: So people are looking, if they're going to go down
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  Speaker 1: this part of the world, it's a big trip for someone.
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  Speaker 1: It's a big, big adventure, an escapade. And they're looking
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  Speaker 1: at Australia, looking at New Zealand, and they're thinking New
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  Speaker 1: Zealand's looking on a better track. Would you agree?
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  Speaker 2: Possibly. I don't know the numbers for Australia, but... I
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  Speaker 2: think there's things going for the New Zealand system, including
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  Speaker 2: the migration system, which make it possibly easier to navigate
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  Speaker 2: than Australia. But I'm just really going on some anecdotal
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  Speaker 2: evidence of that.
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  Speaker 1: OK, well, meanwhile, though, we had some immigration statements. We're
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  Speaker 1: going to talk about this shortly. We had some immigration
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  Speaker 1: statements over the weekend. Winston Peters doesn't seem to like migrants.
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  Speaker 1: Is that the right sort of thing? That line, we
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  Speaker 1: have enough migrants, is that true? Or should we celebrate
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  Speaker 1: the fact that we have.
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  Speaker 2: Quite a few? Talk to the sociologists. They'd say we
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  Speaker 2: really need to get more and more people in here
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  Speaker 2: because if we don't, who's going to pay for the
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  Speaker 2: superannuation for all of us sitting in our rest homes?
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  Speaker 2: I think the idea that we're getting oversubscribed with migrants
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  Speaker 2: is misconceived. We really need to attract people who are
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  Speaker 2: of value to New Zealand, who can do the work
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  Speaker 2: New Zealanders don't want to do as well, and to
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  Speaker 2: do turn the tap off on that is, I think,
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  Speaker 2: in the long term is going to hurt us badly.
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  Speaker 1: Good stuff. Simon Laurent, Immigration Lawyer.