New Zealand will reopen its borders two months ahead of schedule and ease immigration rules to lure skilled workers, ending more than two years of severe entry restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic.
Jacinda Ardern’s government has operated a “zero-Covid” strategy for much of the health crisis that has included harsh lockdowns and a closed border.
The Labour party government said on Wednesday that it would lift restrictions from July 31, easing entry for workers in certain sectors including healthcare, engineering and tech, and provide a faster route to residency.
Entry requirements for overseas students will also be eased.
But rules for unskilled workers will remain in place, the government added, saying the country should not return to its pre-pandemic reliance on low-cost migrant labour.
“This will be welcome news for families, businesses and our migrant communities,” Ardern said, adding that it would provide “certainty” ahead of the peak spring and summer tourism seasons.
The prime minister also announced a new “Green List” of 85 high-skilled roles that have proved hard to fill and the extension of 20,000 work visas. New Zealand businesses that want to hire skilled overseas workers will be subject to less bureaucracy and the visa approval process will be streamlined, the government said.
Immigration minister Kris Faafoi said the country could “not return to pre-pandemic trends that saw us overly reliant on growing numbers of lower-skilled workers and resulted in the increased exploitation of migrants”.
“Our plan is to grow skills at home,” he said.
Business groups welcomed the move but urged the government to develop a long-term immigration strategy.
Kirk Hope, chief executive of industry association BusinessNZ, said the announcement would “not satisfy everybody” but it provided some clarity for employers and signalled the country was “open again and open for business”.
However, he added that more thought was needed over a longer-term immigration strategy, including over how to market New Zealand to potential migrants.
“One of the key things for us is that, whatever the skill levels, New Zealand has shortages. We’re still not training enough people and we don’t have the population to meet the skills demand,” he said.
The decision to ease restrictions came after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand lifted interest rates 0.5 percentage points to 1.5 per cent last month, the highest single increase in 22 years.
A week later, inflation for the year to March hit 6.9 per cent, the biggest rise since 1990, prompting the Auckland Business Chamber to urge the government “to move on the stifling immigration settings so employers can bring in the skills to meet demand and build productivity and competitiveness”. Unemployment in the country is just 3.2 per cent.
