1 Introduction
Many government agencies and social commentators argue that, by linking New Zealand into the rest of the world, migrants can stimulate the exchange of goods and ideas, and hence improve economic performance. Migrants are seen as potential intermediaries, facilitating international flows of information. One of the official motivations for New Zealand’s business visa scheme, for instance, is that “international trade and investment are facilitated through the knowledge of international markets, contacts and languages of business migrants and visitors” (New Zealand Immigration Service 2002). In the same vein, Deutsche Bank’s analysis of the New Zealand economy, prepared for the 2003 Knowledge Wave Conference, suggests “targeted immigration” and “diaspora policy” as ways of increasing New Zealand’s “global connectedness” and economic growth (Deutsche Bank 2003). Recent Treasury research confirms that migrants do in fact boost trade: all else equal, the more migrants New Zealand receives from a particular country, the more New Zealand tends to trade with that country (Bryant, Genç and Law 2004).
Discussions of the contributions of migrants and global connections are often hampered, however, by a lack of information about basic numbers. Estimates of the size of the New Zealand diaspora, for instance, vary by a factor of two.[1] Many people seem to underestimate the size of the “reverse diaspora”—the stock of immigrants in New Zealand. There are also few systematic comparisons between New Zealand’s migration numbers and those of similar countries.
This paper aims to supply some of the missing numbers. It presents some basic data on the size and structure of New Zealand’s diaspora and immigrant population. Virtually all of the data are derived from the “place of birth” question from New Zealand and overseas censuses. The paper provides numerous international comparisons. The conclusion of the paper compares the diaspora and reverse diaspora, and comments briefly on implications.
Notes
- [1]The term “diaspora” is widely used in New Zealand to refer to the spread of New Zealanders overseas through temporary or permanent migration. The traditional meaning of the term is the international population of a given ethnicity, regardless of where they were born.
