Professor underlines immigration challenges to Treasury
massey-university
Tue Apr 09 2013 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Professor underlines immigration challenges to Treasury
Tuesday, 9 April 2013, 5:42 pm
Press Release: Massey University
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Massey professor underlines immigration challenges to Treasury
Competition with other countries to secure and retain skilled workers will only increase as global populations age, says leading sociologist Distinguished Professor Paul Spoonley.
Professor Spoonley will deliver a lecture on the challenges of New Zealand’s reliance on migration to an audience at Treasury on Thursday afternoon.
“In many respects, New Zealand is ahead of the curve in recruiting prime age residents with a targeted immigration framework. But countries with big talent pools like India and China will be more reluctant to see their skilled people leave. We cannot assume that we will always be able to attract immigrants quite so easily.”
Although a major attraction to new migrants is the quality of life in New Zealand, the ability to find work, secure a home and live with friends and relatives will also come under greater scrutiny by prospective immigrants. “If new migrants find that what New Zealand has to offer doesn’t meet their expectations, they’ll go where there are better opportunities,” he says.
The economic and demographic dominance of Auckland will also play an ever-growing role as New Zealanders search for jobs. There are significant impacts for a growing number of regions.
“Research by my colleagues Natalie Jackson and Jacques Poot has revealed some regions of New Zealand are flat-lining or experiencing population decline. How can we combat that at a time when fertility is also declining? Do we need to encourage new migrants to move to smaller centres although there might not be the support structures available in places like Auckland? What are the trade-offs? It’s a complex situation that needs further investigation.”
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Professor Spoonley’s previous research has provided government agencies with a detailed analysis of New Zealand’s migrant population, and he’s about to embark on new research canvassing five regions across New Zealand to work on population projections out to 2036. The study, Nga Tangata Oho Mairangi, is a joint project between Massey University and the University of Waikato, and is funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
Professor Spoonley is also in demand internationally as he will be a Visiting Professor at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Göttingen, Germany later in the year and will contribute to the Migration and Social Cohesion (MISOCO) programme at the University of Amsterdam. He is the author or editor of 28 books, the most recent being Welcome to our World? Immigration and the Reshaping of New Zealand (2012) and Diverse Nations, Diverse Responses: Approaches to Social Cohesion in Immigrant Societies (2012).
ENDS
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