After months of promising to slash New Zealand’s immigration intake by the “tens-of-thousands”, the opposition Labour Party appears to have backslid somewhat, promising to leave the excessively high permanent migrant intake untouched. From Interest.co.nz:
Labour leader Andrew Little says he is confident the party’s new regional visa policy will ensure migrants remain in the regions they sign up to long-term, and that the measure will not be abused along the lines of claims that student visas currently are.
In other comments Tuesday, Little said Labour was not looking at changes to the government’s permanent residency visa target.
Labour had attacked the target set for issuance of about 90,000 to 100,000 permanent residence visas over a two year period, with Little in 2016 calling for the target to be lowered. Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse later that year shifted the range down to 85,000 to 95,000.
“Our policy is not to change that, no,” Little said at his weekly pre-caucus media conference in Wellington’s Parliament Buildings. Labour’s policy targeted the front-end of migrants wishing to enter the country for longer than 12 months, he said.
“You manage that end of the process right, you’ll deal with the residency issues and criteria for residency as a secondary issue. Right now, it’s the people coming through the front door intending to be here for 12 months or more. I think we’ve got to work out how we’re going to manage that more effectively before we think about the other stuff.”
Much like in Australia, where migrants gravitate to the major cities of Sydney and Melbourne, immigrants flooding into New Zealand tend to settle in the already crowded and hideously expensive city of Auckland.
While Labour’s regional visa plan may help to relieve some pressure on Auckland initially, there are big question marks over whether migrants will remain in the regions after their required visa term is up.
The bigger issue relates to Labour maintaining New Zealand’s excessively high permanent migrant intake, currently set at 45,000 people a year (not including Australians) – or roughly 1% of New Zealand’s current population:
This is the long-term driver of New Zealand’s overall mass immigration program, and as long as it remains at such high levels the country will continue to suffer from chronic population pressures, especially in Auckland.
