One of the greatest issues facing New Zealand is its ability to attract and retain talented people as a means of facilitating economic growth.
The objective of New Zealand’s immigration policy is to contribute to economic growth by enhancing the overall level of human capability in New Zealand, encouraging enterprise and innovation, and fostering international links, while contributing to social cohesion. This objective is achieved by selecting a broad mix of migrants on the basis of their skills and experience or their family links to New Zealand or both.
Most people who are not New Zealand citizens and who wish to stay indefinitely in New Zealand must have residence permits to stay in New Zealand. A large proportion of New Zealand’s permanent residents were originally temporary migrants who were granted permits or visas to reside in New Zealand for a limited period. In 2008/09, 81 percent of people approved for permanent residence had previously held a temporary permit.1 Of those, 59 percent had previously held a work permit. In this way, temporary migration has become a major source of talent for New Zealand.
The Department wants to understand:
- the work experiences and outcomes of those who transition from temporary to permanent residence
- whether these migrants work in jobs that use their skills and experience.
Purpose
This report assesses the employment outcomes of former work permit holders who were granted permanent residence status through the Skilled Migrant Category. The report investigates whether these former work permit holders work in jobs that use their skills and experience.
Methodology
The Living in New Zealand survey was conducted between 1 October 2007 and 5 February 2008.
The survey population comprised temporary migrants who had been on work and/or study permits and who had been granted permanent residence status through the Skilled Migrant Category from 3 July 2006 to 31 August 2007. Of the 3,490 permanent residents who responded to the survey, 2,403 had had work permits. This report looks at those residents who had been granted only a work permit (that is, this report does not include permanent residents who had been granted both work and study permits).
Most respondents came from the United Kingdom/Irish Republic (38 percent), South Africa (16 percent), South East Asia (14 percent), and the Rest of Europe (10 percent).
Two-thirds (65 percent) of respondents were male and 35 percent were female.
Most respondents were aged 25–44 years, with only small proportions younger than 25 years and older than 44 years.
Three-quarters of respondents rated their English as excellent and 21 percent rated their English as good.
Most respondents had first come to New Zealand and had their first work permit issued in 2004, 2005, or 2006 and had decided to apply for permanent residence in 2005, 2006, or 2007. Most respondents had held a labour market tested or work to residence work permit.