LINDSAY MITCHELL: Immigrants pull their weight
- Administrator
- Apr 13
- 1 min read
Just-released March 2026 ethnic data shows Maori form the largest group of dependent unemployed people.
At the end of March 2026 48,261 Maori were receiving a Job Seeker-Work Ready benefit (Job Seeker-Health Condition/Disability is a separate category for those considered temporarily unemployed due to illness.) NZ Europeans followed at 43,626. Pacific people occupy third place at 19,005. Asians trail back at 6,840 with Middle Eastern/ Latin American/ African people numbering 2,178.
There is a prevalent school of thought that believes immigrants are heavily welfare-dependent. Apart from Pacific people, that's wrong.
Most immigrants have relatively high employment levels.
Yes, refugees tend to require welfare initially and sometimes longer. But New Zealand's refugee quota is fairly small at 1,500 annually.
When it comes to those who could be working, Maori are massively over-represented.
Whilst colonisation continues to be blamed for Maori 'disadvantage', every year thousands of immigrants come to New Zealand and make a contribution. Often the cards are stacked against them but they don't have any useful excuses for failing.
Immigrants pull their weight. And I am thankful for them.
Her claim:
“Immigrants pull their weight… Apart from Pacific people, immigrants are not heavily welfare‑dependent.”
What the data shows:
Asian and MELAA groups (mostly immigrants or children of immigrants)
Very low welfare usage (22–64 per 1,000)
This supports her claim.
Pacific Peoples
High welfare usage (124 per 1,000)
This aligns with her exception.
Māori
Highest rate of welfare dependence (≈175 per 1,000)
This matches her statement that Māori are “massively over‑represented.”
European Largest number in absolute terms
But low rate per capita (≈55 per 1,000)
Conclusion:
Yes — the official MSD and Stats NZ data broadly supports the statistical part of Lindsay Mitchell’s argument:
Immigrant-heavy groups (Asian, MELAA) have low welfare dependence.
Māori and Pacific groups have high welfare dependence relative to population size.
Europeans have…
I know an immigrant of Eastern European origin who worked here for 10 years, retired at 65 and has collected a benefit [National Superannuation] for the last 12 years. How does Ms. Mitchell reconcile her claim that immigrants pull so much weight with this example? Given the respective differential between Maori/NZ European age curves and longevity differentials, the ratio of Maori receiving pension payments could be fewer than 1 in 30? I'm not suggesting Ms. Mitchell's articles intentionally disparage Maori or that her calculations are inaccurate, but with times so tough, a better fiscal perspective might be gained if she analysed the total cost of state benefits allocated by race?
I agree with the basic point, but we need to be far clearer about the level of "contribution" at which anyone is a NET contributor. We all take for granted, what government spends on a wide range of things, and as long as I work hard, pay my taxes, and keep my nose clean, I am proudly a "contributor". Actually, only the top 10 percent or so of us are NET contributors, and if it wasn't for the BIG net contributors the whole thing would be unsustainable.
So, applying this to immigrants - who work hard, pay their taxes, and keep their noses clean - but what proportion of THEM are NET contributors? This is massively important. We are going…
You gotta be kind of thick to believe its a simple procedure of opening the doors and taking in x number of immigrants.
For gods sake; the country has to have the capacity, as well as the infrastructure to support such influx.
If you owned a hotel that could accommodate a maximum of 100 people and some clown expected you to take in and bed 150 folk.... I assume it would make perfect sense to you.
It begs the question as to how sane is the clerk of bookings.
I also like being retired with all the time in the world to poke shit where shit is deserved
Besides, this is not the days of yore when immigrants pulled…
The question needs to be asked why are 1st generation immigrants entitled to welfare in the first place. The west has lost the plot... If I emigrated to SA or UK (both constant moaners in this country), I would not expect to benefit from a system I had not paid into for years...