New Zealand has experienced an immigration surge since we reopened our border to international migrants in August 2022. Here we look at how this surge has changed the make-up of workforces across New Zealand’s territorial authorities (TAs).
Immigration surge
Migrant arrivals to New Zealand peaked at almost 238,000 in the year to October 2023 before falling back to just over 200,000 over the year to June 2024. Departures continue to climb, reaching just over 131,000 in the year to June 2024 (see Chart 1). In total, between August 2022 and June 2024, just under 400,500 migrants arrived in New Zealand and just over 220,500 migrants departed.
Across New Zealand, the proportion of the workforce who are migrants (includes all visa holders and recent residents) grew from just over 11% over the year to July 2022 to almost 14% over the year to February 2024 (the latest data available).
Auckland pulls in migrants
Auckland has attracted half of the new working migrants that have arrived in New Zealand since August 2022, which is no surprise because half of all existing migrants working in New Zealand live in Auckland. Taking the increase in migrant employment between the year to July 2022 and the year to February 2024, 50% are living in Auckland. Auckland made up 35% of total employment in New Zealand in 2023, but 49% of migrants living in New Zealand.
The increase in migrant workers is nationwide
Despite Auckland’s undeniable pull, every TA in New Zealand has seen an increase in the size of its migrant employed population since the border reopened. Comparing migrants as a proportion of total employment in the year to July 2022 with the year to February 2024 across TAs, Mackenzie District comes out top and is an outlier with a 6.5 percentage point increase. The next highest is Ashburton District with a 3.7 percentage point increase. Opotiki District comes in bottom with a 0.1 percentage point increase.
But a familiar pattern is being followed
Chart 2 is a heat map showing the increase in the proportion of the employed population that are migrants between the year to July 2022 and the year to February 2024 across all TAs. Darker blue indicates a bigger increase. Broadly speaking, the South Island, centred around Mackenzie District, has seen bigger increases in its migrant employed population than the North Island.
The concentration of growth in the South Island comes as no surprise. Areas which before the pandemic had a high proportion of migrants saw the largest increase in migrants since the border reopened. The TAs where migrants have been increasing as a proportion of total employed population since the border reopened are the TAs where migrants already made up a relatively large proportion of the employed population prior to the pandemic.
Migrants are most significant in Queenstown-Lakes
Chart 3 shows migrants as a proportion of the total employed population across TAs in 2019. Queenstown was clearly a hotspot on 40%. Mackenzie District was on 18%, and the surrounding TAs stand out as having had a relatively high proportion of migrants in their employed population (8%–16%).
Tourism and agriculture are key industries down south
Migrants are attracted to those TAs in the South Island mainly to work in either the tourism or agriculture industries. In the year to February 2024, across the cluster of TAs in the lower South Island (Central Otago, Ashburton, Mackenzie, Queenstown-Lakes, Southland, Waimate, Waitaki and Westland districts) 24% of migrants employed were employed in the accommodation and food services industry and 19% were employed in agriculture.
Across the whole of New Zealand, migrant employment is more diverse. Some 14% were employed in the accommodation and food services industry and only 7% in agriculture. Some 12% were employed in healthcare, 10% in manufacturing, 10% in construction, 9% in administrative and support services (including horticulture packhouses and labour hire), and 8% in retail.
Old habits are hard to break
It makes sense that new migrants follow traditional patterns in terms of where they work and settle. Some of the migrants that have arrived in New Zealand since the border reopened might not be new to New Zealand. They might be returning to our shores following a stint in their home country or another country during COVID. Such migrants would naturally return to places in New Zealand they know well and where they already have roots.
Some TAs are home to industries such as accommodation and food services, and agriculture that for one reason or another tend to employ a relatively large number of migrants. Such local industries will continue to attract migrants.
Areas that traditionally employ a large number of migrants will also adapt to that migrant workforce in various ways, making them attractive to new migrants. Local employers build up expertise in dealing with immigration processes and in integrating people from overseas into their workplace. Local businesses such as food, retail and entertainment outlets, and social organisations such as places of worship might crop up to service migrants’ particular tastes and needs. New migrants themselves might also be attracted to settle in areas where there is an existing community of people from their home country living there – possibly friends and family.
But fundamentally, there also have to be jobs available for migrants to take up. It’s no coincidence that total growth in the employed population since the border reopened has been relatively high in several of those lower South Island TAs, especially Queenstown-Lakes District, Selwyn District, Westland District, Ashburton District, Mackenzie District and Central Otago District.
If you are interested in us doing a deeper dive into the migrant employed population in your region or TA, please get in touch.
