A new report says that we need more migrants. The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research is an independent organization which gives economic advice to its members which are mostly businesses. The organization also wants the government to listen to their ideas.
The report says that we should increase our number of migrants by an extra 40,000 people a year in the next 10 years. At the moment we take 15,000 migrants a year. The report says the points system is a useful system for getting the right people but it probably needs to be relaxed a little.
Migrants bring new skills and new workers. They also bring new markets and new networks. Networks are links to other contacts, maybe in other countries. More migrants bring new ideas, new products and more competition. Competition is good for businesses because they need to be innovative. More migrants mean that our population would grow and this would give a bigger domestic market for our many small businesses. An increase in migrants would bring an increase in our GDP.
The disadvantages of a bigger population include the need for more infrastructure like more roads, more schools, more money for the health system and possibly more housing problems. However, there would be more people to help pay for the infrastructure.
The advantages for migrants, if they come from countries which have lower wages, would be a higher standard of living and higher pay. These things take time though.
Australia is a useful model to us because that country has benefitted from migrants. Like Australia, we have a large percentage of migrants. Nearly one in four people living in New Zealand was born overseas.
Vocabulary
- innovative – doing things that have never been done before, new methods and ideas
- domestic – home not international
- GDP – Gross Domestic Product, the value of all products and services produced by a country each year
- infrastructure – basic services and facilities e.g. roads, electricity, water
- benefit – good for the country
Questions
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1. The report was concerned only with economic benefits. What other benefits do migrants bring to our country?
2. Do you agree that New Zealand needs a bigger population?
The migrants bring skills and workers to the country. New Zealand needs a bigger population. It means that New Zealand has to get more migrants every year.