Record migration cause to celebrate: Key

‘New Zealand is highly placed as a destination that people would want to come and live in.’

PRIME MINISTER John Key has hailed record migration as a ‘‘reason to celebrate’’, with most of the arrivals coming from groups the country ‘‘can do nothing about’’.

Official figures yesterday showed the surge of Kiwis coming home from Australia has continued for a full year for the first time in a generation, with people arriving from across the Tasman outnumbering those leaving.

Meanwhile, net migration from all countries reached 62,500, the latest in a series of records, with signs the trend is still increasing.

In the 12 months to October 31, about 100 more people arrived from Australia than left New Zealand to cross the ditch. It was the first time New Zealand has seen net inward migration from Australia since 1991, and marks a sharp reversal from 2012, when those moving to Australia outnumbered those moving here by 40,000.

The change in migration patterns comes as the Australian economy cools.

Prime Minister John Key told reporters that it made sense to ‘‘review who’s coming in’’. But he added that the figures were ‘‘in a way . . . a time of great celebration’’ as it marked a massive turnaround in the population New Zealand had been losing to Australia.

Key said about half of the overall arrivals were international students – who made money for New Zealand – or New Zealanders arriving from overseas.

Beyond that many of the arrivals fell into either highly skilled or investor categories, which added to New Zealand’s economy. ‘‘All of those things are either things that we can’t control, wouldn’t want to control, of things that we should celebrate.

‘‘The alternative to this is net migration showing huge numbers of people leaving our country. Show me a country which is booming around the world, where more people leave it than come to it. The answer is, New Zealand is highly placed as a destination that people would want to come and live in.’’

Chris Tennent-Brown, senior economist at ASB, said much of the turnaround between New Zealand and Australia was for negative reasons. Kiwis may be put off moving to Australia because their prospects were less strong than they once were.

Meanwhile, Kiwis living in Australia may be coming home either because New Zealand’s labour market was stronger, or possible because there was often little in the way of social welfare available for foreigners who were out of work.

The Australian labour market had been ‘‘a bit patchy’’, TennentBrown said, ‘‘and the safety net in Aussie is not great, and that could be a contributing factor to the big turnaround in the trans-Tasman net migration.

Yesterday’s figures from Statistics New Zealand also showed overall net migration reached a record 62,500.

Economists at Westpac said the strong inflows would cause New Zealand’s annual population growth rate to reach its highest pace since 1974.

The largest source of net migration was India, at 13,100, driven by a sharp increase in students, followed by China (8600), the Philippines (4900) and Britain (3700).

Economists have warned that record immigration will stoke unemployment as well as put pressure on an already strong Auckland housing market.

For much of 2015 economists have been expecting net-migration to peak and begin falling, as Kiwis begin moving back across the Tasman, while the increase in the number of foreign students peaks.

ASB’s Tennent-Brown said that the rate of migration was still showing signs of increasing.

‘‘None of the underlying patterns behind the increase are fading and if anything the inflows of migrants still appears to be picking up.’’