New Zealand Immigration News: February 2010

Upcoming New Zealand Immigration Seminars

Happy New Year everybody. With 2009 out of the way we can all now look forward to a better year in 2010.

We are kicking off the New Year with a round of seminars in Kuala, Lumpur, Singapore along with South Africa. If you have friends or family who may wish to attend one of our presentations, details are as follows:

Kuala Lumpur

This seminar is now full with close to 1,000 people seeking to register. Please note we have moved the seminar to the KL Convention Centre, Kuala Lumpur City Centre.

Singapore

South Africa

New Zealand Climate Summary – 2009

It is often very difficult to explain to people how a country that is apparently so small, relatively speaking, has such a diverse range of climates and Microclimates. You can travel very short distances in New Zealand but have incredibly different climates. For example, the south-west corner of the South Island is one of the wettest places on the planet with a rainfall of between 3,000 millimetres and 9,000 millimetres a year. Only 50 kilometres to the east having travelled through rather high mountains (with permanent snow) the climate in many parts of inland Central Otago is virtually desert like i.e. less than 300 millimetres per year. There is very much a distinct east-west divide in terms of climates with the east coast of both the North & South Islands having very low rainfall (and being very prone to drought) but the west coast of both islands are very wet. This is explained by our geography. The Southern Alps, which run the length of the South Island act as a very good barrier to the moist air that flows in from the Tasman Sea. In the North Island, although to a lesser extent given the lack of any significant mountain range, the same effect occurs. In the North Island we tend to have ranges of high hills which occasionally will see snow but rarely. Cities, such as Christchurch, have annual rainfall of around 600-700 millimetres with similar amounts in Dunedin and the Hawke's Bay in the North Island. Each year I put on my website a more detailed summary, but a snapshot of 2009 climate reveals:

• Warmest place: Whangarei with an annual average annual temperature of 15.8 degrees Celsius. (summer mid to high twenties, winter mid to high teens)
• High extreme temperature: Culverden in Canterbury (South Island) with 38 degrees Celsius.
• Coldest extreme temperature: minus 11.7 degrees Celsius recorded at Middlemarch (Central Otago, South Island)
• Strongest wind gust: 184 kilometres per hour at South-west Cape at Stewart island
• Most rain in a single day – Mount Cook with the top three one day rainfalls – 341 millimetres on April 27, 321 millimetres on May 16 and 295 millimetres on April 26.Mt Cook or Aoraki as it is more commonly known is New Zealand's highest mountain at 3754 metres.
• Driest place: Ranfurly in Central Otago with 263 millimetres of rainfall.
• Wettest place: Cropp River in the Hokitika catchment (west coast of South Island) with 10,956 millimetres.
• Wettest main centre: Wellington with 1274 millimetres.
• Driest main centre: Christchurch with 589 millimetres.
• Sunniest town: Nelson with 2571 hours followed by Tauranga with 2450 hours.

If that doesn't give some indication of the incredible range of climates we have in this country nothing will!

New Zealand House Prices

2009 showed a dramatic and unexpected turnaround in property values. Nationwide house values at the end of 2009 were just 4.9 percent below the late 2007 peak. This comes hard on the heels of residential property having been as much as 9.6 percent below that same peak around April 2009.

The recovery was led by urban centres but does now seem to be spilling over into the regions as well.

For the whole of 2009 house values rose at a rate of 2.8 percent with an average sale price of $404,671 in December 2009, up from $393,373 in November.

All is not as it might appear, however, as sales volumes in December, which is traditionally a quiet month, were significantly lower than in December 2008 which were, themselves, significantly lower than December 2007. This is simply more evidence that the demand for good properties remain high but vendors are still reluctant to list houses.

Values in the Auckland region rose 5.2 percent during 2009 and finished with an average house price in Auckland City (Central Auckland) of $615,459, on the North Shore $586,075, Waitakere (West Auckland) $405,573 and Manukau (South and East Auckland) $467,501.

The chart below shows the December average sale price across the country.

PROPERTY VALUES

New Zealand's Job Market Bouncing Back?

According to Trademe (http://www.trademe.co.nz/) Jobs “The job market showed great resilience in the second half of 2009 with 48,000 jobs listed on their website. Trademe is New Zealand's second largest online job vacancy website and interestingly had as many new vacancies lodged in the second half of 2009 as it did in the first half i.e. 48,000 apiece. According to the Head of Trademe Jobs, industries most affected during the downturn had led the recovery with a “large increase in demand” for frontline bank staff, building, motor trades and senior sales professionals.

Interestingly wage inflation still appears to be evident especially with regard to highly skilled jobs with pay packets on offer rising for the majority of professions in the second half of the year when compared with the first.

Some 16 percent of all full-time jobs listed on Trademe come with salaries of six figures and pay rates increased at an annual rate of 2.8 percent. Wellington kept its position as the best paid location with average salaries of $72,471 but, equally, Wellington suffered the sharpest decline of advertised vacancies (because a lot of them were Public Servants or relied on government spending) down 7.4 percent compared to the first half of 2009.

Strong growth in advertising has also been seen in engineering, construction and IT. The largest decrease has been in manufacturing.

On 25 January the recruitment company, Hudson, released the results of their latest employment intention survey in New Zealand employers. It showed 25% of employers expect to increase staff levels in the next three months; and not surprisingly fewer employers are intending laying off staff in a continuation of recent trends.

New Zealanders - A Little About Us

• New Zealanders spend only 25 percent of their leisure time watching television – the least TV time of any OECD country. The Japanese, for example, spend 55 percent of their spare time in front of the box.

• Kiwis are happy with life – sixth out of 30 countries on a scale of overall satisfaction with life. But we don't earn a lot! We're in the bottom third of the OECD nations in terms of income per capita. So maybe lifestyle means more to us than money?

• Women and men have the same amount of leisure time – in fact, women have fractionally more. That makes New Zealand rare. Only Norway and Sweden see the same level of sexual equality for leisure time.

• 15 year-old boys are catching up to girls in reading standards, the only country of the 30 OECD nations where that is true.

• The average age at which a New Zealand woman has her first child is 28.

• 90 percent of New Zealanders report that they have good health, the highest of any OECD nation. Only 34 percent of people in the Slovak Republic think they are in good health.

• We're getting taller all the time – most countries are seeing gradual height increases that are catching up to the tallest nations. New Zealand women average 164cm; New Zealand men average 172cm. Women in Denmark average 168cm; men in the Netherlands are the tallest at an average of 181cm.

• Kiwis are happier at work than we were in 1997. In that year, 71.4 percent of people rated themselves “completely, very or fairly satisfied” with their job. In the latest results that number had increased to 80.7 percent. Only 68.6 percent of Koreans were satisfied at work, compared to a high of 92.3 percent in Mexico.

• 67 percent of New Zealanders say they'd like to spend less time on the job.

• The French spend the most time eating and drinking at 135 minutes per day, we're a close second at 130 minutes. That compares to the Mexicans who spend only 66 minutes daily on eating and drinking. Maybe all that eating accounts for why we haven't got any time left to play sports. New Zealanders dedicate only 5 percent of their time to physical activity, compared to 12 percent of leisure time for Spaniards.

• Norwegians have the most leisure time, but we don't have much. In fact, we're fourth from bottom in terms of percentage of the day spent at leisure (18.7). Only the French (18.4), Japanese (18) and Mexicans (15) have a lower percentage of leisure time than we do. On the plus side, at least we spend more of our time at leisure than we do at work – 15.6 percent of our day.

• We spend more of our day (16.7 percent) doing unpaid work than doing paid work (15.6 percent). Unpaid work includes all household work (chores, cooking, cleaning, caring for children and other family and non family members, volunteering, shopping etc).

• We sleep a lot! The French top the table with a total of 530 minutes per day of sleep (about eight hours, 50 minutes each night). The USA (518) and Spain (514) follow, then it's New Zealand with 513 minutes of sleep each day, or eight hours, 33 minutes.

• High schools in New Zealand and Finland have the best science results of any OECD nations.

Immagine New Zealand - Facebook

We now have our own Facebook page. To become a fan please search “Immagine New Zealand”.

Our House

Please don't forget if you are a full fee paying client or permanent residence we have a fully furnished four bedroom home you can rent in Auckland's eastern suburbs. If you would like more information please contact kay@immagine.co.nz and remember you have to rent the whole house for at least four weeks.

New Zealand's Work To Residence Policy – Is It Working?

Recent media reports of skilled migrants coming to New Zealand on Work to Residence Visas, failing to obtain skilled employment, being ‘forced' to return home having had their residence cases declined, has drawn calls for this policy to be dropped.

The Skilled Migrant Policy seeks to identify those who are more likely to settle well and contribute to the NewZealand economy through their skills. Space does not allow for details here of all the policy but some applicants need to demonstrate that they meet all the criteria, bar being in possession of skilled employment, and they may then be granted a Work Visa to travel to New Zealand to find that ‘skilled' employment.

Statistics obtained by the NZ Herald (26 January 2010) suggest about half failed in 2009 and some may argue this is a failed policy. I view it differently.

The policy is well designed, but arguably poorly targeted. It needs some modification given the recent recession, but calls for the policy to be dumped are shortsighted.

To be eligible for a Work to Residence Visa applicants must be from labour markets deemed ‘comparable' to New Zealand or on what is known as the Long Term Skills Shortages List which is a list of occupations ostensibly in accute and ongoing demand (whether it is accurate or not is another story). What is quite clear is that the notion that all the countries listed as having comparable labour markets by Immigration New Zealand is highly misleading. Although it may make someNew Zealanderssquirm uncomfortably there is no doubt that New Zealand employers view migrants from particular countries very differently to others. Those from South Africa, the UK and the United States are usually (but it has to be said not always) more employable than those from China, India and the Philippines. That is a fundamental reality that the policy makers in Wellington have accepted by adding a degree of discretion to whether such applicants are declined or granted a Work to Residence Visa.

How they exercise that discretion is another story in itself.

It may be unpalatable to some to consider that an Accountant from England has a greater chance of quickly obtaining employment here than one from the Philippines, but the verdict is in – employers have spoken. That is the reality.

As licensed immigration advisers we are brutally honest with potential clients about this fact but unfortunately the Immigration Department is less forthright. The Immigration Department's own website actively encourages highly skilled people to come to New Zealand with little in the way of advice about what they can really expect when it comes to the labour market.

It is those migrants, so adversely affected that often turn to the news media in the hope the Government will be too embarrassed to make them leave. Others simply return home quietly, their hopes for a new life in pieces.

As recently as last week it was revealed that INZ is about to start actively marketing in Singapore. If the Immigration Department knows anything about that market, they will know that there are many migrant groups living there the campaign does not seek to attract but who run the risk of being caught up in the campaign, will be encouraged to spend thousands of dollars on Government fees but who are doomed to fail before they even begin. Singaporeans themselves can struggle to get work here unless they are well researched, have fluent English and have skills in real, not imagined, demand.

Getting involved in promoting New Zealand as a migrant destination and actively encouraging people to apply is at odds with the department's role as border guard and gatekeeper. How can any Government Department actively promote and encourage applicants, then draw them into a process that will cost them thousands of dollars in fees, medicals and so on that will result eitherrin their not being given the cahnce to come to New Zealand to find that skilled job or who are damned by local employer sentiment to fail if they do.

The Immigration Department should not try and be both. They aren't that flash at much of what they do at the best of times and in my view their role should be to process visa and permit applications.

The question also has to be asked how much responsibility the unemployed or unemployable migrant must accept for the situation they find themselves in. In the age of the internet, potential migrants to New Zealand should not be short on information. The internet is awash with forums and chat groups often set up by migrant groups to share their experiences – good and bad. Half an hour on most of them will make it very clear that New Zealand employers are very particular about who they employ.

Surely, if you were considering moving from one side of the planet to the other and you were relying on employment either to secure your permanent residency or to put bread on the table, the first thing you would want to understand is how employable you were. There is no doubt many migrants misunderstand that being on a skills shortage list or being “Invited to Apply” for residence by the New Zealand government is some guarantee that they are employable. Unfortunately the Immigration Department does precious little to warn them otherwise. This has to change and there are a number of licensed immigration advisers who have made very strong suggestions to the government that the Immigration Department start doing so.

No immigration policy is ever perfect and unfortunately there will always be winners and losers. Pointing fingers is easy.

Migrants need to accept the process is risky and they are playing for high stakes and they cannot lay the blame for the outcomes totally at the door of the Immigration Department and the NewZealand government. Equally the New Zealand government needs to ask itself whether it should be acting as marketer and gatekeeper and take a very close look at whether through its poor advice and communication with its own customers, it is not leading many to their visa doom.