For the first time, China has overtaken the United Kingdom and has turned out to be the largest source of permanent immigrants to New Zealand.
The annual report of ‘Migration Trends and Outlook’ has shown that Chinese have made up 15 % of the total 38,961 people who were allowed on a resident visa to New Zealand in the year 2012/13. The Chinese nationals have moved ahead of India and UK, both of which are at 13%.
More than one among the four international students coming to New Zealand is from China. There has been a largest absolute increase of 29% with regards to visitor arrivals from China. This is the reason why China has moved up to the top spot from the third position as for as visitor visas are concerned.
According to the report, it is predicted that both long-term and permanent net migration will cross 30,000 from the middle of 2014, as the economy continues to grow.
Nearly 1 in 5 skilled migrants come from India, ahead of the UK on 15%, which is primarily due to the reason that many of the international students are becoming permanent residents of New Zealand.
Paul Spoonley, Immigration expert said the phenomenon of the three Asian nationals namely India, China and Philippines who are consistently among the top four nationals of largest migration, moving UK backwards, means that the population make up of New Zealand could change at a more rapid pace than expected.
Almost 36 % of permanent migrants were from 3 Asian nations, which were Philippines (3,051), India (5,128) and India (5,794), for the year 2012/13.
