By Gurbir Singh (Hamilton, New Zealand), May 25, 2018:
There has been a slight decline in the students numbers in New Zealand last year from its two largest education markets - India and China.
Those arriving from India to study, and intending to stay in New Zealand for at least a year, fell 10 percent (down 600) to 5,800. This is 45 percent below a recent peak of 10,600 Indian students in the year ended January 2016.
According to Stats NZ, the combined number of migrant arrivals on student visas from these two countries fell by 1,000 to 11,100 in the 12 months to January 2018.
This decline of student numbers appears to a be a fall-out of the amendment of some visa policies, including raising the salary bar for those who wished to apply under the skilled migrant category for residency. The current coalition government is also keen to stop migrants using study to gain a backdoor entry to residency.
In spite of the downward trend of student visa arrivals, migrants from all over the world, including India, still continue to make a beeline to this country to make it their new home.
In the year ended January 2018, total migrant arrivals in New Zealand were 132,000, with the largest migrants arriving from China, followed by India. This was a net gain of 6,700 over the previous year for Indian migrants.
From the financial year 2007-08 until 2017-18, Immigration NZ (INZ) approved 39,828 residency applications from India, and as a result, 58,937 people from there were granted resident visa under different categories.
Similarly, the registration of Expressions of Interest (EOI) in New Zealand’s Skilled Migrant Category, continues to be dominated by Indians.
In every fortnightly selection in 2017 and this year (up to mid-May), the Indians recorded the highest percentage to register their EOI.
According to INZ data, in the latest selection that took place on 16 May this year, the highest expression of interest was again from Indians at 22%, followed by, for example, those from China-18%, South Africa and Great Britain were next in line at 12% each, followed by other nationalities.
The unquenchable thirst of Indians to move overseas is not likely to decline any time sooner and with shortage of skilled migrants in New Zealand, they will continue to make a beeline to this first world country.
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Gurbir Singh is a New Zealand-based Freelance Feature Writer & Journalist. He can be contacted at: gurbir@journalist.com