New Zealand: Lifestyle Attracts Migrants

The relaxed pace of life or lifestyle had been identified as the most common reason for permanent migrants to choose New Zealand as their new home, Statistics New Zealand said today. The results suggest that the most common reasons to choose New Zealand are lifestyle (at 44 percent), the climate or clean, green environment (40 percent) and the desire to provide a better future for their children (39 percent).

Six months after gaining permanent residence, 93 percent of migrants indicated that they were satisfied or very satisfied with life in New Zealand. Nearly the same percentage (92 percent) reported that they plan to stay in New Zealand for three years or more while 5 percent were not sure at that point in time.

Most migrants (86 percent) had spent time in New Zealand prior to gaining permanent residence and over half (55 percent) had been employed in New Zealand before. At the time of the interview, 95 percent of skilled principal migrants were in the labour force. Two percent of skilled principal migrants in the labour force were seeking work. For those who reported difficulties in finding employment the most commonly reported obstacle was lack of New Zealand work experience. Most migrants however, reported that they did not experience difficulties in finding work.

Permanent migrants generally had a high level of English language ability (87 percent), either reporting English as the language they speak best or having good or very good English language skills.