Justcol

I doubt anyone can have failed to notice the almost total lack of potential new migrants on here. The forum used to be a busy place with a steady flow of people looking to make a move, now we see almost no one.
MInisters keep telling us there are plenty of applications for all the unfilled job posts out there, particularly those in the health sectors, but the number of vacant posts never seems to go down.
Is it just political spin or has NZ finally lost it's appeal

Pulaski

Many countries are trying to attract more immigrants. I saw Australia is directly promoting itself to at least certain occupations in the UK, so maybe NZ simply isn't as attractive as other possible destinations?

It has long been noted, on BE, and beyond in the real world, that Canada has at least some immigrants that would prefer to be in the US, and some certainly seek to use Canada as a stepping stone to the US.

Moses2013

I don't know about that and according to a survey from last year, here in Ireland 70% of young people aged 18-24 want to move abroad due to high cost of living. Australia, NZ, Canada and US are the main destinations as English is spoken. I would assume it's similar in UK which is of course a larger population. Covid obviously slowed things down and most of these young people are no longer on forums. They use different platforms and today you just need one influencer to start the trend. I think NZ is very high on the list and I have no worries that you will have plenty of people coming.

Pulaski

That is the nature of Ireland, and has been for the past couple of centuries. Some years ago, early 90's, I took my mother to Ireland to stay with a family friend, and one night while I was there I went with some of the friend's neices and nephews, to meet some of their friends in the local pub - there was quite a crowd, 15-20 people in total.

Of that group, there were only two people who either had not worked outside of Ireland, was not currently do so, nor had firm plans in place to leave for work. Of the two, one was still at high school, so didn't really count, leaving just one out of at least 15 young people present without history or interest in leaving to find work!

BEVS

Some of this with BE and its forums is that forums of this nature have simply become somewhat redundant as other media type outlets have taken over. Of course it does not help that BE needs a mega refurb and an injection of current useful info + active advertising that BE exists to help and support.

The way to check how NZ immy is doing currently as opposed to , say , pre-pandemic is to look at the eoi pool pulls per policy. Mind you even with that, this will not be a way to really reflect how NZ is doing on an immigration/emigration front. I think it is too soon to guage this . Give it another year post-pandemic.

Of course, NZ has become a far more expensive country to live in overall . For those seeking a 'better life' which for them means a new build house and space ,then those times have gone. For those seeking more space and a simpler lifestyle , then NZ could well still be the place for them.

One problemo though could be its remoteness from anywhere. Pre-pandemic plane hopping to where one wished to be was possible even if expensive and time consuming. Now it is more difficult overall and you are not going to be simply booking a cheapo-ish online flight every year or two to see family and I think the pandemic has played a part in putting people off the idea of this sort of 1950's/1960's separation.

Pulaski

That's what I was saying above ^ there are other countries that are offering similar things to New Zealand, in other words similar attractions, but not having to go to the far end of the earth to find it. Obviously every country also has its downsides, so for example the weather in NZ is less harsh than Canada, but NZ has the risk of earthquakes. Is it worth living in a country 24hrs traveling from the UK for better weather than Canada which is only 7-10 hours away from family?

Moses2013

That is true and nearly all of my cousins in Ireland moved abroad. It is pretty normal that you do work and travel, most of them all returned again and started family here though.
Then certain destinations were popular at the time and aren't that popular now, for example Dubai replaced Orlando. I also remember everyone wanting to move to Ibiza which is just too expensive now.
And you also see the opposite and many other nationalities made Ireland their home.

Moses2013

There are definitely other countries that offer similar things, the difference is that people who seek paradise will often try to go to the far end of the earth and places close by are not really considered trendy/sexy. Regardless if NZ has earthquakes, a lot of people who are focused on NZ are not bothered and even the high cost of living is not a showstopper because many believe a higher wage makes up for that. Language is another advantage and look how many people still want to move to California despite the earthquake risk. Spain was always popular with Brits, since Brexit the forum is also dead and even here in Ireland I don't know many young people (maybe because I'm old:-) talking about wanting to move to Spain. Wages were never great in Spain and you always had the language barrier, but that didn't stop young Europeans wanting to move there in the past. Now it's more the middle aged and retired you see, on the other hand more and more younger Americans dream about Europe (Spain/Portugal or even Ireland). I returned from Spain recently and have never seen so many Americans around the Costa Brava and Barcelona. https://www.thelocal.es/20221128/spa...ans-to-move-to
Of course one could question if it's worth moving from the UK to Mosgiel/Dunedin when they could have gone to Glengarriff/Cork or somewhere like Llanes North of Spain.

Pulaski

Well there are always some people attracted to remote places, but I thought we were talking about numbers/ quantity, and people whose motivation is to "try somewhere else". Many of those may prefer somewhere that isn't as remote as New Zealand when there appears to be competition to attract immigrants. That's all I was saying.

Moses2013

You are probably right there, although Canada/US wouldn't be around the corner either. I suppose one has to also look at the population size and it's just natural that other countries might seem to attract more people if those populations are larger. There are only so many positions available and you can't really compare NZ (5 million) with Canada (39 million). Although from 2020, this article still seems to be true and whenever you watch programmes in Europe and even when I speak to people I know (German, Swiss, Irish, British) Australia and NZ always seem to be the dream countries. But maybe the distance does stop them going, I don't know.
Why Europeans no longer dream of America
https://www.ft.com/content/8ed8fca1-...d-6c4622bdc987

Pulaski

Some of it surely has to do with publicity in popular culture - there is a long history of films and TV shows made in or about Australia being shown in the UK. Canada maybe not as much. Obviously not much needs to be said about the pervasive coverage of the US.

Then there's New Zealand, which at least these days has Lord of the Rings.

Moses2013

You are right there and I remember when Lord of the Rings came out and everyone wanted to visit NZ. In Ireland some people still visit Cong because of The Quiet Man, they are slowly disappearing due to old age and now it's only really Star Wars. Although apparently we'll see the Americans visiting Achill
https://extra.ie/2023/02/20/entertai...-irish-tourism

Maybe NZ just needs that one big blockbuster again.

Justcol

I'm not holding my breath for that.
The only people who seem to come here are characters who are being semi permanently written out of Coronation street or Emerdale 😆

LittleGreyCat

I think a lot of attraction to NZ is based on 10 years ago, and history hasn't caught up yet.
We have certainly seen a difference this last visit.

We like Ireland, especially the South East around Cork which seems to have the best weather.
Although Ireland is green because it rains most of the time.

At one time there was a boom then bust in housing which left NZ style lifestyle plots available for not a lot, but again I think that has been and gone.
We plan to visit again, perhaps this year, just for a look but immigration (at a quick glance) seems to take 9 years to become a citizen which is a long time for those of mature years.
It would be nice to be part of the EU again, though.

There are opportunities elsewhere in the EU but native English speaking is a bonus.
Which explains why the USA, Canada, Australia, NZ feature on the wish lists.

Moses2013

The same challenges everywhere and I would love to move down to County Cork closer to coast. Unfortunately these are the prices for something next to the ocean so probably similar to NZ in parts now. Hate the house but would be my dream setting https://www.daft.ie/for-sale/detache...o-cork/4669903
It's actually 5 years to gain citizenship and have full EU rights again.