2 October 2007

Research shows that new Kiwis boosted New Zealand’s coffers to the tune of $3.3 billion in the year to 30 June 2006, Immigration Minister David Cunliffe announced today.

Migrants contributed $8.1 billion in income tax, GST and excise duties, far outweighing the $4.8 billion New Zealand spent on education, health and welfare for our new kiwis.
 
“Immigration ensures that our employers can access the much-needed skills they need for economic growth, and migrants also bring in links to export markets, investment, ideas and diversity.

“The Settlement Strategy that I launched in July has enlisted the support of 16 central government agencies to ensure that these valuable migrants are given all the help they need to settle and contribute to New Zealand,” said Mr Cunliffe.

The research report, The Fiscal Impacts of Immigration, showed that the positive impact from migrants has grown about 80% from previous research done in 2003 which showed a net fiscal impact of $1.7 billion.
 
“The net fiscal impact per head for recent migrants rose nearly 35% from 2002 to 2006, which is evidence that our migrants are making a strong contribution to our economy, and that our immigration policies are attracting exactly the migrants we want,” said Mr Cunliffe.

“We are building up a picture of just how much immigration contributes to the wellbeing of all New Zealanders,” said the Minister.  “We know that in general employers are impressed with the performance of their migrant staff, and we know that most migrants are happy to be here, and say they would recommend New Zealand to friends and family overseas.

“Our migrants are hard workers, and research I released earlier this year showed that migrants were much less likely to be on a welfare benefit than their Kiwi-born neighbour”.

The research is part of a three-year series of work by the Department of Labour into the economic impacts of immigration.

“This research will be fed into decision-making about future immigration policies and will be an important source of information for future economic planning in New Zealand.”

The research showed that Auckland gets the biggest boost from migrants as 45% of all migrants live there.  But over time migrants move out of Auckland and Christchurch and spread around New Zealand.

The report uses the latest Census data which showed New Zealand has a migrant population of almost one million people.

“Migrants from all over the world play a vital role in the economic transformation and wonderful diversity of this country. In the long term that role is set to increase in the future as our need for skilled, talented people continues,” said Mr Cunliffe.