Choices

It's obvious that immigration has changed New Zealand in the past. But it's difficult to foresee how it will change us in the future. Where will the debate go and can we move past racism? What role will the media play? How will the questions we ask now shape immigration policy in the future? Noelle McCarthy asks; where do we go from here?

It's obvious that immigration has changed New Zealand in the past. But how will it change us in the future? In the final episode of Slice of Heaven, Noelle McCarthy visits a Northland town where old questions are being asked anew.

"There's that real fear our fisheries will go kaput, our water will be polluted beyond belief... we're all going to end up speaking Chinese...that's already happened here but it wasn't done by Asians." - Slice of Heaven, Ep 4.

And in a series of letters, economists Michael Reddell and Hautahi Kingi debate the benefits and costs to New Zealand of immigration. Michael Reddell opens the conversation:

Dear Hautahi,

Even though we've been running one of the largest immigration programmes anywhere for decades, there is little or no specific evidence that the average New Zealander has benefited. In fact, productivity - the basis of long-term prosperity - here has kept on drifting further behind other advanced countries.

Academic models seemed to suggest benefits from large scale immigration. But there is still no sign of them.

That shouldn't really be a surprise. Most of the models give little attention to fixed natural resources, but perhaps 85 per cent of New Zealand's exports are still natural resource based.

More people means nature's bounty just gets spread more thinly.

And entrepreneurs have found it very hard to develop successful international businesses, based on anything other than natural resources, in such a remote location.

Our policymakers need to pay much more attention to the specifics of New Zealand's situation and our experience. I've argued that we should abandon the Think Big experiment and substantially lower migrant numbers. We take three times as many migrants per capita as the United States does, so there is plenty of room to cut numbers, all while stepping back into the international mainstream.

Regards,

Michael

_______________

Tena koe Michael,

I share your concern for our woeful productivity numbers. However, we disagree about the cause and the solution to this problem.

Our fall down the OECD productivity ladder has spanned decades, and has certainly preceded the relatively recent increase in immigrants. The relationship you draw between migration and productivity therefore seems somewhat tenuous…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details