International Migration and New Zealand Labour Markets
| Published date | 01 June 1986 |
| Date | 01 June 1986 |
| Author | RUTH S.J. FARMER |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2435.1986.tb00797.x |
International Migration
and New Zealand Labour Markets
RUTH
S.J.
FARMER*
The New Zealand economic recession which began in 1974 had a dramatic impact on the
interaction between international migration and New Zealand’s labour markets.
Immigration waves have been a feature of New Zealand’s history (Farmer, 1985) but the
big swing from the highest total net immigration peak recorded this century in 1973-74
(33,167) to the largest total net migration loss ever recorded in New Zealand in 1978-79
(26,544) was much more than a traditional labour migration reaction to the wide
fluctuations that characterize New Zealand’s primary product export prices (Figure
1
see
page 494). The quadrupling of oil prices in 1973-74 and the following collapse in New
Zealand‘s terms of trade was much more catastrophic than that of the early 1930s; the
decline in per capita real income in New Zealand was substantially greater than in any of
the other 20 member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development for which data that can be compared are available (Organization
for
Economic Co-operation and Development, 1977, 26-27). The economic influences
combined with the pressures created by the large influx of immigrants in the preceding
boom to strengthen the belief
-
long and widely held in New Zealand
-
that newcomers are
competitors for a limited number of jobs and that high living standards should be
protected through controlled immigration (Farmer, 1985). New immigration regulations
ended the era of free entry for persons of exclusively British and Irish birth and descent on
2
April 1974, and action was taken against temporary amvals from the small island
countries of the South Pacific who had stayed long term. As uncontrolled emigration
increased rapidly almost every occupational group in all sectors of the economy was
affected by the migration flows. The depleted stock of skilled persons needed in the long
term in New Zealand has benefitted from return migration but debate on the role of
immigrants in providing scarce labour in different New Zealand labour markets has again
become a major issue in 1985.
This paper seeks to assess the value of the overseas-born members of the labour force in
ensuring a flexible labour supply in New Zealand since the beginning of the 1970s. Three
main issues are considered: first, the role of the labour market in New Zealand’s
immigration policy; second, international migration trends and the labour market; and
third, the evidence on migration and labour market segmentation in New Zealand. Use is
*
Department
of
Geography and the Population Studies Centre, University
of
Waikato,
Hamilton,
New Zealand.
485
made of the annual external migration statistics for the years 1 April to 31 March, the
quinquennial census statistics and some recent research on international migration and
the New Zealand labour market.
THE ROLE
OF
THE LABOUR MARKET IN NEW ZEALAND’S
IMMIGRATION POLICY
New Zealand has long stood out among the traditional immigration countries of the New
World for its cautious immigration policy engendered by public concern to protect the
quality of life of New Zealand’s workers (Farmer, 1985). In 1946 labour market
considerations were paramount when the Dominion Population Committee made
recommendations that became the basis of New Zealand’s immigation policy after the
Second World War. The Committee found no need for large scale immigation for
agricultural purposes but recommended a carefully planned immigration policy to fill the
labour shortages in secondary and tertiary industries that could not be filled in the short
term by the local population (Thorn, 1946, 117). Every succeeding government has
adopted short term immigration programmes to alleviate immediate problems of
mismatched labour supplies and labour demands. The early 1970s was the most serious of
many occasions when the planned impact of immigration has differed from the actual
impact because of changes in the state of the labour market between the time the
immigrants were recruited or accepted for immigration and the time they amved in New
Zealand. Many New Zealanders, confronted with an over-saturated labour market and the
high costs of providing new immigrants with the services they expect in a
highly-developed welfare state, advocated better long term planning in immigration. The
new Labour Government responded in June 1973 by undertaking an urgent review ofNew
Zealand‘s immigration policy.
The main purpose of the review was to ensure that the most important aspect of
immigration, the permanenet immigration of workers and their families, matched the
changing needs of the labour market in the best interests of New Zealand. It was
emphasized that there is a limit
to
the number of immigrants that the New Zealand
economy can absorb in any given period, and that immigrants would be admitted in
accordance with defined criteria
so
as to assist in promoting ‘stable growth rates in the
economy’ and in maintaining ‘reasonable increases in living standards’ (Colman, 1974,
26). The entry controls imposed on
2
April 1974 on all immigrants, except those travelling
under the reciprocal Trans-Tasman Travel Agreement concluded with Australia in 1972,
were intended to remove the major uncontrolled component of New Zealand‘s
immigration flow: the voluntary immigration ofpeople from the British Isles. In future all
Commonwealth citizens of European ancestry and citizens of Ireland living outside
Australia would need an entry permit to settle in New Zealand. The selection of
immigrants from all sources would be based on the ‘continuing demand in New Zealand
for the immigrants’ skills and qualifications, good health and character, age (from 18 to 45
years), family size (not more than four dependent children) and their ability to settle
satisfactorily in the community’ (Colman, 1974, 24). The ‘principal breadwinner’ of a
couple or family seeking entry on occupational grounds has to have skills listed in the
Occupational Priority List which
are
in short supply in New Zealand and normally has
to
have suitable employment pre-arranged. Applicants from developing countries are only
considered if the skills they possess are not in demand in their country of origin.
Labour market considerations have been less influential in the permanent entry policies
based on family reunification and humanitarian grounds, although the migrants who enter
New Zealand under these categories include workers who increase the supply of labour.
The selection criteria for family reunion emphasize that only close relatives of New
486
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