Tuesday 11 October 2016 12:53 PM

NZ immigration policy tweaks to push down migrant access, Woodhouse says

By Paul McBeth

Oct. 11 (BusinessDesk) - The government is pushing against growing demand to move to New Zealand with "small" changes to designed to reduce the number of people being granted residence, says Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse.

The New Zealand Residence Programme's planning range for residence approvals for the next two years has been lowered to 85,000-to-95,000 from a previous range of 90,000-to-100,000, the skilled migrant category will impose higher barriers to entry, and the number of places for capped family categories was more than halved to 2,000 per year, Woodhouse said in a statement.

"We will be making some changes to better manage the skilled migrant and family categories at a time when demand for gaining residence under these categories continues to grow," Woodhouse said. "Today's announcement demonstrates the government is taking a responsible, pragmatic approach to managing immigration."

New Zealand has benefited from record levels of net migration over recent years, largely due to the weakness of the Australian economy making a trans-Tasman jaunt less attractive for Kiwis. However, that's also been seen as driving up house prices beyond the reach of the average household in a period where low interest rates has meant people are more willing to take on debt.

Government data show 57,958 people were granted residency in the year ended June 30, 2016, up from 52,447 in 2015. Of that, 31,519 were as skilled migrants in the 2016 intake, the most since the 2008/09 year.

Woodhouse said the increase in points needed to gain access will "enable us to lower the overall number of migrants gaining residence", while the capped family categories, which let in 4,055 people in 2016, "will also reduce the total number of migrants being granted residence."

(BusinessDesk)

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