According to NZIER (New Zealand Institute of Economic Research Inc .), an institute providing a wide range of consulting services for clients in the public and private sectors, attracting and allowing more outside migrants into the country could dramatically increase the income of the nation domestically. According to its conclusions, New Zealand’s GDP could be increased by $ 410 if an additional 40,000 people a year were brought in consecutively for 10 years. Their study also puts forth the view that even though the ‘point-based immigration framework’ is resulting in good results for the country much more could be done in this area to bring in more numbers and help the domestic economy too.
The report and study affirms that the immigration system is working well and along the right and expected lines but more could be done to bring in more migrants who typically bring in with them the much needed skills, talent, dynamism, etc. One of the institute’s and study’s researchers pointed out that almost one-in-four New Zealanders was born overseas but the current policy of allowing only 45,000 to 50,000 migrants a year was too low and ‘very arbitrary’.
There are some interesting statistics available pertaining to migration to New Zealand which have been highlighted by the aforesaid study. In the last 12 months, the country had gained 22,500 new migrants. This was the first time that there was such a big inflow, the last time being in 2003, when the country gained a total of 34,900 migrants. But, the study and report concludes that an additional 40,000 people entering the country each year could raise the incomes for not only migrants but the local population also. The study and the report also assert that the advantages and benefits migrants bring to New Zealand far outshine any potential difficulty the economy could face from funding the additional infrastructure. And so, the study concludes that fears of immigrants coming in and burdening and overwhelming the economy are exaggerated and unwarranted.
Typical polls such as that of Gallup have in the past and in the recent past glorified New Zealand as the ideal place to migrate to. But, of course there are skeptics among some academic experts, too, who do not support immigration at such levels into the country. All the same, a significant section of economists believes that immigrants and immigration bring with them much needed new skills, innovation and entrepreneurship, aid in scaling up the country’s ‘local scales’, increase competition, and also increase ‘returns on investments’.
