Opening the doors

If Immigration New Zealand were a business and not a government department, it would have been shut down long ago and sold off.

Because more New Zealanders want to leave than return, immigration is the only means to stop the country from becoming depopulated. (The Labour Department sent me a page full statistics to prove this – would you believe 4.1 million people in 2021 compared with 4.4 million today? Or that 60% of the workforce growth in 2001-06 was from migrants?)

A costly bureaucracy attempts to stop all those who want to live here from coming, though many still get in. Anecdotal evidence says there are many thousands of “illegals” already here.

The administration’s obduracy and inefficiency has also created a thriving sub-industry of consultancies. Needless to say, these have been regulated, too, and at last count the Immigration Advisers Authority had some 480 on its books.

One of the longest-established, Malcolm Pacific (started like at least one other by a former cabinet minister), says its services are necessary because

… in apparently straightforward, skills-based cases, 30% of all applicants who enter the process because they believe they are qualified are in fact rejected or declined. You cannot afford to trust your future and that of your family to this level of risk.

A shrinking population

Yet the result of all this is a population that is basically static – or worse, shrinking. Latest figures out this week show a long-term net migrant inflow of just 70 for June (adjusted), the lowest since November 2008 and representing an annualised net gain of just over 16,000.

These figures are volatile, as they are usually related to economic trends, but even so Statistics New Zealand reports this is well below the peaks of 30,200 (April 1996 year) and 42,500 (May 2003).

Meanwhile, the global outlook for migration is starting to improve, the OECD reports in its International Migration Outlook 2010.

On the global scene, inflows of immigrants fell about 6% to 4.4 million in 2008 and continued to decline in 2009, reversing five years of average annual increases of 11%.

The OECD says granting citizenship to immigrants increased their participation in the labour market and improves their ability to integrate in host countries.

“…over the long term, labour migration to the developed world [will] continue because of the ageing of populations and the availability of jobs in several sectors, particularly care for the elderly and children.

“According to its forecasts, without an increase above current migration rates, the working-age population in OECD countries will increase only by 1.9% over the next decade, compared to an 8.6% rise in the last 10 years.”

Unintended consequences

Readers may recall an item in May about trade economist Kyle Stiegert’s work on how countries use “special safeguards” to frustrate World Trade Organisation efforts to level the playing field for importers and exporters.

Professor Siegert was in Wellington for a couple of months on an academic assignment and also turned his attention to developments in genetically modified crops.

In an article for the Competition & Regulation Times, published by the Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation, he raises the startling possibility that public fears of GM have generated such an irrational response among policy-makers that they have failed to pay heed to more disturbing developments.

These are that handful of companies – including the despised Monsanto – have been allowed to create a highly concentrated industry through vertical integration and patent protection. He concludes

"These trends raise questions about the organisational efficiency of the US and the global seed industries that supply an input necessary to feed the world’s populations and provide for other critical human needs including energy."

Tightening the screws

Although I last mentioned North Korea only last week, several important developments have since occurred.

The US will soon enact new economic sanctions aimed at disrupting Pyongyang's weapons and contraband trade, as well as targeting the finances of its elite.

This pledge was delivered during a visit to South Korea by both US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and defence secretary Robert Gates, who also touted large-scale war games involving 8000 American and South Korean troops in the Sea of Japan (or the East Sea, as the Koreans know it).

But apart from these power politics, aimed at punishing North Korea for its attack on a South Korean warship and putting some heat on China, comes a more damning indictment (pdf) of the North's communist rulers from Amnesty International.

The Guardian’s Matthew Partridge summarises it as follows

"It condemned the North Korean regime for refusing to distribute food quickly and fairly, and pointed out that restrictions on information and movement have made it harder for the population to search for what little food there is. Overall, Amnesty said, the regime's actions "have had a devastating impact on the health of the population."

He backs up his argument not to send humanitarian aid with evidence from Dutch investigative journalist and aid expert Linda Polman’s book War Games that this usually ends up either prolonging or exacerbating a crisis.

It’s not so hard to apply parallels to the agenda of so-called Gaza aid flotillas, masterminded by  terrorist organisations in Turkey and the government of Libya.

Barry Rubin has this update on events on Mavi Marmara (here’s betting TV One’s now-downsized Sunday show won’t be following up on its trip to London to interview Kiwi-born Nicola Enchmarch, but expect media plugs for Kia Ora Gaza).

Meanwhile, Canadian columnist Robert Fulford provides his verdict on attempts to boycott Israel. He reports the website Divest This!  has found not one US college or university has sold even one share of a company identified as a supporter of Israel.

In conclusion, Fulford notes

"...during the period when enemies of Israel were doing their best to cut its economic lifelines, Israel's economy remained in much better shape than equivalent economies elsewhere."