OLIVER HARTWICH: The revolving door at the end of the Pacific
- Administrator
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
No country moves people the way New Zealand does.
Nearly three in ten New Zealand residents were born overseas. In our 29-country comparison, only Singapore, Switzerland and Australia have larger shares of foreign-born residents.
Meanwhile, 12.8% of New Zealand-born people, roughly one in every eight, live overseas. Only Ireland joins New Zealand near the top of both lists, and New Zealand’s combination is more extreme. We are a revolving door at the end of the Pacific.
Migration figures do not reveal why individuals move. Yet other data in our new report New Zealand by Comparison suggest reasons.
Those arriving may be reading the society pages. New Zealand ranks fourth of 29 countries for honesty in government and fifth for the rule of law. New Zealanders also report greater life satisfaction than people in richer countries, including the United States, Germany and Britain, and rank fifth for generosity and sixth for having someone to count on.
Those considering departure may have read the economy pages. New Zealand’s productivity ranks 20th of 29. In 2024, the average Australian wage exceeded New Zealand’s by about US$10,700 a year, adjusted for purchasing power. The gap applies to like-for-like jobs from the supermarket checkout to the hospital ward.
Nobody emigrates because of a chart, not every departure is permanent, and wages are never the whole story.
Even so, the numbers show that wages remain too low, houses are unaffordable and businesses cannot access the capital to grow. Those are pressures that push people to leave.
New Zealand’s social stability and strong institutions may help explain why people come, while its economic weaknesses may help explain why some leave.
That data contain hope as well as warning. New Zealand has trust, safety, clean government and social support, although none can be taken for granted.
Policy cannot make the country larger or move it closer to its markets. But it can improve the settings for investment, competition, housing, trade and skills, helping productive firms grow and good jobs remain here.
The revolving door will keep turning either way. The real question is whether we give more people greater reason to stay.
Download ‘New Zealand by Comparison – 2026 Edition’ from the NZ Initiative website, listen to the podcast and read about it in our latest articles in NZ Herald and The Australian.
Dr Oliver Hartwich is the Executive Director of the NZ Initiative
KiwiResistance's contribution below is not a serious argument; it's xenophobic fearmongering wrapped in the language of patriotism. It smears millions of people with crude stereotypes, singles out Indians as a threat, and recycles the thoroughly discredited "great replacement" conspiracy as though prejudice becomes respectable by repeating it loudly enough.
New Zealand has no place for ethnic scapegoating and manufactured panic - we must have evidence, honesty and intelligent policy. Demonising entire communities is lazy, divisive and utterly unworthy of a confident, democratic nation.
This contributor is not to be taken seriously - he would have on the road back to Southern Rhodesia/Zimbabwe.
New Zealand is DEFINITELY headed for the Zimbabwe/Banana Republic of the Pacific, and the blame can definitely be placed squarely on the beehive and its occupants of the last 50 years. Scheming lawyers, over 50 years ago, saw a pot of gold in the grievance industry, and probably worked on a % of gain basis for iWi, who, thinking only of themselves and their pockets, jumped at the idea. Today, their 'industry' exceeds $100BILLION, and its 'growth' is STILL by way of the strangled, exhausted, TAXPAYER, who, like potential investors, see NO future in this segregated (apartheid), RACIST Country, and are telling their children and Grandchildren to go to Australia, just like I did. With iWi BLOCKING any new development…
Sadly what is currently missing is 'improve the settings for investment, competition, housing, trade and skills, helping productive firms grow and good jobs remain here'. How hard would it be to provide incentives for international business to set up facilities here? I suspect really hard,given the level of red tape (locally & nationally), maori protocol forced on them etc. Plus given our failed education system, and distance form markets, even harder. It's going to take some really bold actions to turn this ship around. It's not yet at the point where there is cross-party agreement on what needs to be done (like Ireland), and I doubt there ever will given the destructive tendencies of the left.
Why should immigrants, who've never contributed to creating our institutions or funding our infra-structure, have access to free schooling, health care etc.
There's far too many foreigners being allowed into our struggling nation, especially feisty Indians, who will soon out number & no doubt come into conflict with maori.
We must learn from how the woke liberal globalist "great replacement" agenda has & is destroying European nations & replacing the indigenous populations.
We must adopt a Fortress NZ like, national priority approach. This would mean when comes to jobs, housing, health care, schooling etc., NZ citizens should be prioritised. Yes, New Zealanders & our national interests first.
Even New Zealand's societal attractiveness won't last if its economic wealth continues to dwindle. It may remain a "nice place to land" for some time, particularly for people from poorer, more crowded, more socially fractured countries like India. But that means we are becoming a destination of last resort, not first choice. The affordable option, not the aspirational one.
As an immigrant myself many years ago, I can say the draw was lifestyle and a relatively upstanding society, not salary. Although back then, New Zealand showed real promise of emerging from its farming base into a leader in science and technology fit for new age children. We had genuine achievements to point to.
I was wrong. It hasn't happened.
Instead,…