Over the past two decades, international movements of people have increased significantly. This is not migration in the traditional sense – the ease and cheapness of travel and communication means that individuals (and their families) may travel internationally for employment, without settling for the rest of their lives as in traditional migration models.
This paper considers the implications of such phenomena for NZ – the risks and opportunities for individual New Zealanders and on capacity in the New Zealand labour market. Particular challenges for New Zealand include the risk to the economy longer-term of skills shortages, the apparent costs of losing skilled New Zealanders overseas, and ensuring good outcomes for migrants in the labour market. Opportunities arise from the potential to gain skills and valuable links into the global economy. The paper also discusses possible policy solutions available to government to maximise the opportunities whilst managing the risks around globalisation of labour flows. These will be considered not just in terms of immigration, but of other factors which also influence labour flows.