Abstract
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has remained the second-largest source for residence approvals in New Zealand since 1997. This chapter will provide an overview of this new Chinese immigration flow and its engendered return and re-migration patterns. It will contextualize the new wave of PRC immigration against the background of New Zealand’s changing immigration policy after 1986 and China’s economic and social transformation. It will focus on examining the immigration pathways of the PRC migrants, their general profile and settlement, indicated by participation in the labour market, and their transitional migratory mobility, a theme of research on new Chinese immigration everywhere. The chapter will conclude with a discussion of how new Chinese migrants are perceived by the host society, especially the indigenous Maoris.
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Notes
- 1.
“New Chinese migrant” in the New Zealand context usually refers to Chinese who have migrated to New Zealand since the introduction of the Immigration Policy Review in 1986, which abolished the “traditional origin” preference for British migrants. New Chinese migrants are mostly from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the PRC. These three groups plus Chinese from other countries (e.g. Malaysia and Indonesia ) are categorized as new Chinese migrants.
- 2.
In this chapter, the PRC, Mainland China and China are used interchangeably.
- 3.
The Labour Party or Labour is a social-democratic political party in New Zealand and one of the two major parties in the country’s politics. Another major party is the National Party.
- 4.
The “Little Asian Dragons” are South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore .
- 5.
The National government came into power in 1991 and introduced an even more open policy to welcome migrants from various regions. Its 1991 policy changes primarily featured the introduction of a revised Business Investment Category (BIC) to replace the previous Business Investment Policy (BIP) and the encouragement of skilled immigration via a General Category that involved a points-based selection system (Trlin 1997). While the BIC’s aim was to deal with the shortcomings of the BIP, the points system shifted the focus from obtaining immediate economic and financial benefit from new immigrants to a greater determination to secure human capital and “quality” migrants who would make a contribution to the nation’s economic growth and strengthen the international links required for that growth (Trlin 1997). It was supposed to be a “key instrument” to attract a greater number of “quality migrants who would make a positive contribution to economic and social development” (Trlin 1997: 5). This new system targeted people with tertiary education who were young and had a track record of gainful employment (Ip 1995).
- 6.
Immigration policy was tightened up in October 1995 as a response to the influx of new Asian immigrants and its negative backlash in the media and among the public (Ip 2001). This raised the bar to entry, especially regarding the English-language requirement for both principal and non-principal (over 16) skilled and business migrants. The language requirement was designed to restrict the entry of migrants from non-English-speaking backgrounds (Henderson 2003). All principal applicants from such backgrounds had to achieve a minimum Band score of 5, and a NZD20,000 language bond was applied to spouses and dependents of 16 years and over if they failed to meet the English-language requirements within the specified time.
- 7.
The most significant immigration policy initiative during the Labour government’s first term (1999–2002) was the launch of the New Zealand Immigration Programme in October 2001 and the introduction of a managed entry regime. Within this regime a “skilled/business” stream was allocated 60 % of the government’s total target for residence approvals, while a “ family sponsored” stream was allocated 30 % and an “international/humanitarian” stream 10 %. This managed entry was designed to regulate the “economic” and “social” streams of immigrants. A series of further policy relaxations took place between 2000 and 2002. The overall permanent residency approval target was raised from 38,000 to 48,000; under the GSC , those who were within five points of the pass mark could apply for an open work permit, thus making it easier for them to accumulate the points necessary for residence while meeting a demand for labor; applicants’ skills and qualifications did not need to have any direct link with the work they were seeking; and the language requirements for principal applicants were reduced from a minimum of five in each of the four International English Language Testing System modules to an average of five across all four modules (Bedford et al. 2005). Apart from the October 2001 package, there were some side-stream immigration channels promoted by the government. The enforcement of the government’s initiative of “work to residence” in April 2002 was significant during this period in terms of its potential to encourage highly employable people to become permanent residents.
- 8.
In July 2003 the minister of immigration suddenly announced that a new Skilled Migrant Category would come into force in December to replace the GSC . Overall, this new selection system replaced the pass mark system with a process whereby people who qualify above a certain level of points (at least 100 points) can submit an EOI into a selection pool, from which they are invited to apply for residence. Points are allocated on the basis of age, qualifications, a skilled job or offer, the regional location of the job offer, work experience and identified skills shortage. Bonus points are granted in certain circumstances and partners’ employment and experience, New Zealand qualifications and employment outside of Auckland are recognized.
- 9.
Interviews in China targeted returned Chinese migrants, termed “returnees” in the research. The interviews conducted in Australia were done with Chinese migrants with New Zealand permanent residence or citizenship who moved across the Tasman Sea and stayed there long-term. This group of interviewees is termed “trans-Tasman.” Interviews in New Zealand collected conversations with Chinese immigrants who are settling in New Zealand but who stay in touch with their homeland or other destinations where family or other personal ties live. This group of interviewees is named “settlers ”. They have family members who are “returnees” and/or “trans-Tasman” migrants.
- 10.
Total Skilled residency approval is the sum of the number of subcategories, including General Skills, Skilled Migrants and Work to Residence.
- 11.
Total Business residence approval is the sum of the number of subcategories, including Old Business, Employee of Business, Entrepreneur and Investor.
- 12.
PRC-born Chinese studying and categorized as not-in-labour-force in the Census data are Chinese international students . These percentages may indicate a relatively poor performance on the part of PRC migrants in the labor market since self-employment and enrolment on education programs are often strategies among Chinese to avoid unemployment (Ip 2001).
- 13.
“Long-term absentees” are those who, on the survey day, had spent a period or periods of time overseas amounting to more than six months after their arrival as permanent residents.
- 14.
“Astronaut” families are those in which (usually) the wife and children stay abroad while the husband returns to his Asian homeland to work and provide financial support
- 15.
Migration between New Zealand and Australia was less regulated before the 2001 policy change in Australia . Even though this movement is essentially international, “in many respects it is more similar to internal migration within Australia ” (Hugo 2004: 35).
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Appendix: Rates of Long-Term Absence by Source Country as of June 30, 2013 for Migrants Approved for Residence, 2005/2006–2011/2012
Appendix: Rates of Long-Term Absence by Source Country as of June 30, 2013 for Migrants Approved for Residence, 2005/2006–2011/2012
Source country | Number approved for residence | Number long-term absent* | % long-term absent |
|---|---|---|---|
USA | 8892 | 2364 | 27 |
Canada | 3139 | 809 | 26 |
Singapore | 1460 | 366 | 25 |
Taiwan | 1019 | 227 | 22 |
Netherlands | 2315 | 522 | 22 |
China | 41,577 | 8450 | 20 |
Hong Kong | 1004 | 201 | 20 |
France | 1632 | 320 | 20 |
Malaysia | 4506 | 877 | 19 |
Germany | 4700 | 898 | 19 |
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Liu, L.S. (2017). New Chinese Immigration to New Zealand: Policies, Immigration Patterns, Mobility and Perception. In: Zhou, M. (eds) Contemporary Chinese Diasporas. Palgrave, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5595-9_11
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