David Cunliffe, Minister for Immigration, made the following key points today in a speech to the annual conference of the New Zealand Association for Migration and Investment:

There are three objectives to the Immigration programme.

• To ensure that New Zealand has the skills, talent and labour it needs for economic transformation. New Zealand is experiencing widespread skill and labour shortages. In fact, one third of small businesses tell us that it is their biggest barrier to growth.
• New Zealanders need to confident of the security of our border.
• Migrants and refugees need to settle well, and integrate into communities. We want the best settlement outcomes for migrants and refugees.

The global immigration environment is changing. And we must change with it or risk being left behind.

The Four Drivers of Change:

• Circulation - There are now greater people flows around the world. In general, people are more transient now than they were 20 years ago. Settlement patterns have changed; thus temporary and semi-permanent migration have increased.
• Global Competition for skills, labour and talent - As labour mobility increases, countries will increasingly compete for migrants.
• Diversity - New Zealand is becoming more culturally diverse – a fact that we celebrate and embrace. One in five Kiwis were born overseas. New Zealand has a relatively proud record on multi-ethnic relations to date. But in times of international instability, this cannot be taken for granted. Recent riots in France and Australia reinforce the need for successful settlement and integration.
• Heightened risk and pressure on the border - Unfortunately, a sign of our times is the heightened threat of international terrorism, illegal migration and trans-national organised crime.

We’ve shifted the focus of skilled immigration policy from passive acceptance to active recruitment of the skills New Zealand needs – through boosting the Skilled Migrant Category and lifting the quota.

We have improved the uptake of English language education for migrants.

At the policy level, let me give you a foretaste of some of the key reform packages currently under development that is of direct interest to your members.

Investors: We are reviewing the business/investor/entrepreneur category. We are taking a holistic view, looking at the broad contribution that investors make to economic development, focussing on the creation of real jobs, real investment while building on the current scheme. This is a fresh look at the investor stream, based on an economic development framework that will offer fresh thinking in a key category.

Family-Sponsored Stream: We are addressing the current concerns around backlogs and delays and also the efficient use of departmental resource. In particular, I want to see uncertainty removed for the spouses and qualifying dependant children of primary applicants.

Settlement Strategy: The settlement strategy has seen the establishment of 19 community-based support initiatives to assist migrants with the challenges of settling in a new country. These initiatives help new migrants and refugees with everything from finding a job, a place to live, and schools’ for children to getting an IRD number and opening a bank account – anything that new migrants may need assistance with. The initiative was only launched last year but already the feedback has been very positive.