In the wake of WW2, immigration policy was driven by a mixture of compassion for the refugees of war, and by a less admirable desire to replenish our ranks (preferably) with the racial stock of the old Empire. Ever since the neo-liberal reforms of the 1980s though, immigration has been treated as a market transaction in human capital. Its worth has been and judged almost entirely on the basis of the economic benefits that immigration offers to New Zealand. Instead of the state investing in r&d to grow our skills base it has seemed cheaper in the short run to import many of the skilled people we need.

More and more, the policy focus has been on how best to attract skilled talent from the Third World, provided they are (already) highly proficient at speaking English, and are willing to forego their own heritage, and assimilate.

All things considered, there are any number of reasons why we should be thankful to the migrants (and their families) who choose to settle here. Without them, our public health system would be in even worse shape. 

Overseas-trained doctors made up more than 70 percent of new registrations in New Zealand [in 2023/24] while the home-grown medical workforce is shrinking.

This week has seen a fresh spate of concern about the unsustainable workload being placed on the GPs in primary care. Migrant doctors ease some of that burden. Among OECD countries, New Zealand has long had one of the highest rates of dependence on foreign-trained medical professionals. To boot, roughly one third of our nursing workforce gained their nursing qualifications offshore, with that figure rising to over half of those nursing this nation’s older patients in “continuing care.”

As the Medical Council has pointed out, New Zealand not only has to keep on recruiting significant numbers of trained health professionals from overseas, but – just as importantly – it has to provide far better incentives to retain the skilled medical staff who do come here:

Just 28.7% of overseas-trained doctors remain in the country after five years, compared to 84.9% of locally trained doctors.This high level of turnover places pressure on clinical teams, fragments continuity of care, and weakens long-term workforce resilience. Medical workforce planning must therefore shift from a focus on recruitment alone to a focus on career development, retention, and long-term contribution. We are not short of talent. We are short of incentives to keep that talent here.

Basically, if skilled migrants are to settle here, they have to feel welcome and cherished - not resented and punished on suspicion of being insufficiently grateful. Health Ministry tables at this link provide a hair-raising glimpse into the shortages of doctors across a wide range of medical disciplines that New Zealand faces now, and by 2033.

In other employment sectors, one could repeat the benefits that migrants bring to this country, and not only at the top end of skilled migrant categories. Migrants do much of this country’s low waged work as well, across a number of service areas.

Migrants as political footballs

Of late, the rivalry between the ACT Party and New Zealand First has intensified, as they compete for the same relatively small bloc of conservative voters. The rivalry is not simply to do with immigration, either. David Seymour recently tried to use the fuel crisis to justify removing some of the safety/weight regulations around the impact of heavy trucks on our roads. Winston Peters immediately challenged ACT’s proposal. Instead, Peters argued, the rail network (not trucks) should be the first priority for any government seeking to ease the impact of the fuel crisis.

More recently, ACT and New Zealand First have also been trying to outdo each other on immigration. According to the political right, unless immigration is kept to a minimum and tightly controlled, migrants will (allegedly) take our jobs, snap up our housing, and erode the nation’s racial and cultural identity.

Thankfully, most New Zealanders do not think like this. The vast majority of voters are not treating immigration as a serious concern. In recent IPSOS polling, only 8% of New Zealanders identified immigration as their primary concern, such that immigration rates down at only 18th out of the 20 issues listed in the IPSOS poll findings.

Par for the course. In many respects, immigration is serving a similar political purpose to the role played by vaccines during and after the pandemic. In both cases, a policy supported by the vast majority of New Zealanders became (a) an irrational outlet for wider anxieties, and (b) a litmus test for the minor parties seeking the allegiance of the relatively small numbers of people on the hard right of the political spectrum.

That rivalry involves a tit for tat process of one upmanship. Hot on the heels of NZF’s “butter chicken tsunami” comment, ACT released its six point plan of immigrant bashing proposals. In a direct copy of Australia’s hard-line 501 visa cancellation policy, ACT is proposing to deport serious offenders no matter how long they’ve lived here.

ACT also aims to charge a $6 a day “infrastructure surcharge” on all temporary work visa holders, and to exclude all residence visa holders from welfare assistance for five years from time of arrival. In response, Winston Peters is promising to top all of this once NZF’s soon-to-be- released immigration crackdown sees daylight.

All of this is deeply weird, niche politicking that’s bound to undermine New Zealand’s efforts to attract and retain migrants. In the world beyond the redneck enclaves, most of the electorate feel little or no hostility to new migrants, skilled or otherwise. Most people recognise that New Zealand has an ageing population with a declining birth rate. (Reportedly, our total fertility rate has dropped to 1.55 births per woman, well below the population replacement level of 2.1.) For a range of reasons, we need more migrants.

There is also a broad acceptance that globally, only a fairly small pool of skilled talent exists, and that other countries are trying to attract this talent by making it feel welcome, not resented. Obviously, we cannot rely on our natural environment to do all of the recruitment and retention work required.

No democratic mandates

On that last point, over 90% of New Zealanders did not vote for ACT at the last election. Over 90% of voters did not vote for New Zealand First, either. Yet these two fringe parties are fostering fear and resentment of migrants via punitive policies borrowed from the toxic likes of Nigel Farage in Britain. To Seymour, migrants are allegedly to blame for our decades-long infrastructure deficit, and should be made to pay to put that deficit right.

[Politicians] “have allowed infrastructure to fall further behind. And they have asked too little of people who want to benefit from the Kiwi character without supporting it. The rate of [migrant] settlement has overwhelmed the ability to provide infrastructure."

Ugly stuff. Are New Zealanders happy to be branded on the world stage in this racist, divisive fashion? To date, there has been little in the way of forceful pushback against Seymour and Peters, by either of the two major parties.

Footnote: BTW, it is grimly ironic to watch the ACT Party flex and pose as the champion of the disgruntled voters left behind by the market economy. Down the years, ACT has been the most vocal political advocate for the neo-liberal market policies that have destroyed the job security of the very people that ACT says it is now here to help.

Ultimately, it was the free flow of goods, services and human capital (all heavily promoted by ACT) that left these voters feeling socially dispensable, and ready to look for scapegoats. ACT, not immigrants or asylum seekers, would be a far worthier target for their anger. At least New Zealand First has never tried to hide its racist/anti-globalisation tendencies.

K-Pop (still) rules

Talking about the forces of globalisation, over the past decade, South Korea has demonstrated the worldwide gains that can be achieved by a smart, sizeable investment in the arts by the state. Over the past 15 years, South Korea has become an international powerhouse in music ( BTS, BLACKPINK, Stray Kids), in films (K-Pop Demon Hunters, Parasite, Burning, No Other Choice), and in TV series (Squid Game, Beef, Pachinko etc.)

So successful has this “Korean wave” of popular culture been that other countries are trying to attach themselves to it. A few weeks ago, Bolivia passed a pro K-pop municipal law in the country’s capital, La Paz:

The Municipal Law for the Promotion and Development of Youth Artistic Expressions Related to K-pop, passed by the [La Paz] city council, provides a legal basis for police security at K-pop events, the inclusion of K-pop activities in the municipal government's culture and arts agenda, the hosting of cultural exchange events such as K-pop festivals and administrative support for youth K-pop groups.

So much for American cultural dominance. Gone are the days when blue jeans and rock’n’roll enabled the US to win the soft power dimension of the Cold War. The boy band BTS have spearheaded South Korea’s soft power success. A few years ago, Hyundai Research reported that BTS was delivering $US3.6 billion a year to the Korean economy, and that one in 13 tourists to the country were being drawn there by BTS. During their stay, those foreign BTS fans were spending roughly a billion dollars each year on accommodation, internal travel, BTS merchandise and cosmetics.

That success was put at risk when (between late 20222 and early last year) the BTS members did their compulsory military service. In late March, their comeback album Airang sold four million copies on its first day of release, topped the US Billboard charts for four weeks and has been the biggest selling/streaming album in the United States so far this year. Here’s “Body to Body” from the Airang album:

And here’s a track from BLACKPINK's most recent EP. Currently, the biggest challenge facing the K-pop industry is not artist-related. It has to do with the looming prosecution of Bang Si-hyuk owner of the Hybe agency that handles BTS. Here’s “Jump” by BLACKPINK. TV viewers may recognise Lisa from her role as the ambitious dream girl of the resort guard in the Thailand season of The White Lotus.

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