New Zealand’s immigrant population has skyrocketed during the “conservative” centre-right government’s first year, with Indians now making up 23% of recent resident visa holders.
According to new data from the Ministry of Business Innovation & Employment (MBIE), the total number of migrants on recent resident, work, student or other visas hit a record high of 607,023 at the end of October, up from 380,388 a year earlier.
Recent resident numbers went from 233,322 in October 2023 to 338,139 this year, while work visas increased from 111,276 to 192,930, and student visa from 34,371 to 74,772. The MBIE figures do not include immigrants who have been New Zealand residents for five years or more.
Of the 338,139 recent resident visa holders, 78,213 were from India, 62,301 were from the Philippines, 33,831 were from China, 30,246 were from South Africa, 16,986 from Great Britain, 13,968 from Fiji, 9,507 from Sri Lanka, 6,819 from the USA, and 86,283 from other countries.
In 2014 there were just 21,054 Indian recent resident migrants out of a total of 174,000. During that year Great Britain was the largest recent resident group on 25,389, but that number has been falling ever since.
In that year there were also 15,513 recent resident visa holders from the Philippines, 21,150 from China, 12,717 from South Africa, and 11,847 from Fiji.
Shortly after winning the November 2023 election New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said New Zealand’s net migration levels were unsustainable and accused left-wing predecessor Jacinta Ardern’s Labour government of “opening the floodgates” after Covid.
Since the election net migration numbers have fallen due to a drop in arrivals – which remain high by historical standards – and a record increase in departures, according to Stats NZ.
“Annual net migration gains have continued falling from the provisional peak of 136,300 in the October 2023 year,” Stats NZ international migration statistics manager Sarah Drake said.
“The fall in net migration reflects that arrivals are down, and departures are up.”
The data comes after Census results made available in October showed that European New Zealanders made up less than 56% of the population in 2023, raising concerns they will be a minority by the next survey in 2028.
In 2023, 2,790,354 New Zealanders listed their ethnicity as “European only” out of a total population of 4,993,923, or 55.9%.
This is down from 59.8% in 2018, and 61.4% in 2013, showing a much faster decrease in the past four years. In 1996 the percentage of Europeans was 82.4%, falling to 79.2% in 2001, and 76.7% in 2006.
In 2023 mixed European and Maori people were 8.3% of the population, “Maori only” were 7.3%, Asians were 15.7%, and those from the Pacific were 5.5%. The remainder were other mixes or other ethnicities.
Stats NZ said on Thursday that Indians were now the third largest ethnic group with 5.8% of the population, followed by Chinese (5.6%), and Samoans (4.3%). Those figures include mixed ethnicities, and include double counts.
