grapples with the loss<\/a>, experts in Australia say the flood of arrivals are a boost to the local economy \u2013 plugging gaps in sectors like healthcare and construction.<\/p>\nProf Alan Gamlen, director of the Migration Hub at the Australian National University (ANU), says the flow of recent arrivals is in part tied to New Zealand\u2019s weak economy but also follows an established trend.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the 1970s the flow towards Australia started to outweigh the flow from Australia to New Zealand,\u201d he says. Gamlen points to \u201coverseas experience\u201d or OE \u2013 a cultural rite of passage for many Kiwis to spend time abroad, which is amplified by the country\u2019s remote geography and small scale.<\/p>\n
A tourist visiting Maungawhau\/Mount Eden, the highest natural point in Auckland. Data suggests 73,900 New Zealand citizens left the country in the year to August. Photograph: Saeed Khan\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cThe current high influx is linked to the economic downturn in New Zealand, which feels global shocks \u2013 like the long tail of the Covid-19 pandemic \u2013 more intensely.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gamlen says the wage gap between the two countries is shown in GDP per capita: in Australia, it is about $64,400, while in New Zealand it is about $48,000, according to World Bank data.<\/p>\n
\u2018Insane\u2019 money and opportunities<\/p>\n
Genevieve Fulton, 22, is among the recent arrivals. She moved to Melbourne in January and says her casual job in Wellington paid about NZ$22.70 (A$19.85) per hour, but in Australia she earns \u201cover double that\u201d on weekends.<\/p>\n
The higher pay allows her to work fewer hours in hospitality, freeing up time to build her intended career in illustration.<\/p>\n
\u201cWellington is starting to feel quite hollow and a bit spooky, just not really the country that I feel like I grew up in,\u201d Fulton says, describing an environment where her friends are \u201cstruggling to find any sort of work\u201d.<\/p>\n
She says the opportunity for growth was limited in New Zealand. Her brother, a welder, moved to Melbourne two years before her and says there is more work and the \u201cmoney is just insane\u201d, she says<\/p>\n
Like Fulton, Tyla Vaeau also felt New Zealand was changing. Vaeau, a Tufuga t\u0101tatau \u2013 master of traditional Samoan tattooing \u2013 relocated to the Gold Coast in January.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you asked me two years ago if I would ever move to Australia, my answer was a staunch \u2018no\u2019,\u201d she says. \u201cHowever, Auckland is changing \u2013 it doesn\u2019t feel like the Auckland I grew up in any more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vaeau moved to Australia to be closer to her family, who had already permanently relocated. She now considers a return improbable: \u201cI would need my sister, my nieces and nephews and my parents to all move back with us \u2013 that is not affordable with the current cost of living and housing crisis in Auckland.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andy Fechney, 25, who moved to Sydney from Christchurch for a graduate program, says the decision was career-focused.<\/p>\n
People on the beach at Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast of Queensland, Australia.
Photograph: Martin Berry\/Alamy<\/p>\n
\u201cPurely from an opportunities point of view, there\u2019s just a lot more things happening in Australia,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Analysis by the ANU Migration Hub found 80% of the New Zealand diaspora lives in major Australian cities. In 2021, more than a third of the New Zealand-born population was concentrated in Brisbane and the Gold Coast (21.4% and 15.9%, respectively), followed by Melbourne (19.3%) and Sydney (17.4%).<\/p>\n
But significant numbers in Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia reside in regional and remote areas, often linked to the mining and resource sectors.<\/p>\n
Gamlen says the influx of New Zealanders to Australia is a \u201cvital source of flexible labour\u201d in sectors such as hospitality, construction and healthcare.<\/p>\n
New Zealanders are \u201cnet-positive contributors to the Australian fiscal purse \u2026 it\u2019s always been the case that they contribute more in taxes than they consume\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n
While New Zealand often worries about \u201cbrain drain\u201d, Gamlen says the flow of people should be considered \u201cbrain exchange\u201d. Having a large, skilled diaspora is \u201creally useful\u201d, allowing New Zealand to \u201cpunch above its weight politically and diplomatically\u201d through its expatriates.<\/p>\n
Hayden Fisher, who works in a book store in Sydney, says the wage and lifestyle makes it much more attractive to live in Australia. Photograph: R\u00e9mi Chauvin\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
For many New Zealanders living in Australia, a return seems unlikely \u2013 at least in the near term.<\/p>\n
Fechney doesn\u2019t intend to move home to New Zealand \u201cany time soon\u201d , he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo move back, there would need to be a really great opportunity for work, or some sort of family turmoil. As much as I love it, there\u2019s only about five-and-a-half million people in New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most of Fulton\u2019s friends in Australia are also New Zealanders, who are enjoying their time in Australia and plan to stick around.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew Zealand is a beautiful country, but \u2026 a bunch of beautiful mountains can\u2019t really pay your rent and pay your bills.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Hayden Fisher moved to Sydney from Wellington a year ago, the financial gains were immediate. In New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-115066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}