Eaqub says economic opportunities first have to be created, then people will come. "Just having immigration policy on its own is not going to do very much."
He says there's a "massive skills mismatch" in the provinces and unemployed people don't necessarily have the skills to engage in available jobs. "It's very shortsighted to use immigration to fill that gap, rather than to use training and education."
Eaqub believes Government measures to get migrants to the regions won't solve the provinces' underlying problem -- the poverty trap.
"There are generations of people who are being left behind. They can't access work, they're living in poverty and they get more and more marginalised and, the sad truth is, because they are out of sight they're out of mind.
"It feels like a very reactive solution to a much deeper and long-standing problem that we've had in the provinces."
He says the provinces have no shortage of resources: land, capability, physical capital and people who want to stay there.
"So, for those people who want to stay, how do you make sure they have access to opportunities just like everybody else?"
The big question for provincial New Zealand is how to deal with the poverty trap.
"Unless we can create a more nurturing, more enabled local community it's very unlikely that having a short-term inflow of people is going to have a long-standing, enduring, positive effect for the regional economy."
The Government policy has backers. An Indian association leader says it will allow migrants to use their skills to help develop regional areas. Over the past 10 years, migrants have mostly come from Australia and the United Kingdom, with China and India competing for the third spot.
New Zealand Indian Central Association president Harshadbhai Patel says the majority of those migrating to the country from India go to the big cities for the social life and job prospects. However, some students do study in regional areas such as Otago and Rotorua.
Mr Patel says Government measures to attract migrants to the regions are a good idea. It makes sense to give migrants the opportunity to use their skills to develop regional areas rather than adding to dense populations in big cities. He thinks the measures will be successful in attracting Indians, in particular, to the regions -- if they have the skills those regions require.
Mr Patel says Indian people are attracted to New Zealand scenery and people, who are easy to mix with. He says New Zealand is a safe place and Indians like the lifestyle.
Some come to visit the country having been exposed to it in films back home and end up moving here. Others come to study and stay.
WHAT'S THE DEAL?
Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse says the immigration measures are aimed at improving the spread of workers, skills and investment across New Zealand.
"Thousands of people from all over the world are moving to New Zealand because it is a good place to live, work and raise a family," he says.
Those people make a significant contribution to New Zealand's economic growth by providing skills, labour and capital, along with valuable cultural and business links.
Currently, many new migrants settle in Auckland, which faces infrastructure challenges as it transforms into a truly international city.
"At the same time, business owners in other parts of New Zealand often struggle to find enough skilled workers to meet their demands."
Mr Woodhouse says 53 per cent of skilled migrants granted residence with a job offer are based outside of Auckland currently. Through the changes, he envisages more skilled migrants will look to gain residency outside of Auckland, though he says it's difficult to estimate the exact impact at this stage.
He doesn't expect Immigration NZ will need to employ more staff as a result of the changes. However, Mr Woodhouse expects up to 200 new entrepreneurs to be approved in the coming year, resulting in hundreds of new jobs and around $70 million of new export potential.
OPPOSITION
The Labour Party says National's plans to get migrants to the region won't work.
Immigration spokeswoman Sue Moroney says incentivising migrants to settle in the regions was Labour policy at the last election but won't work under National's proposal.
"The vital ingredient that they have missed out is a comprehensive regional economic development plan that underpins that."
New migrants will only settle and stay in the regions if there are jobs, she says. Unless there are good, secure jobs to keep them in the regions they will end up back in Auckland.
She says Invercargill mayor Tim Shadbolt has asked how the Government will keep migrants in the regions and whether they would need ankle bracelets with tracking devices.
"A lot of the mayors, even, could see this might get migrants to go initially to the regions in order to secure residency, but once they got residency that they'd be free to go where they wanted," says Ms Moroney.
A comprehensive plan is necessary with each region playing to its strengths and creating high value jobs.
"What they have lifted out of Labour's policy from 2014 by itself won't work unless it has the broader agenda that Labour was promoting alongside it.
"At the moment, the regions are struggling to cobble together, by themselves, these plans and they're patchy, they're very patchy."
She also believes the current Government is averse to collecting data to find out whether measures are working.
A prominent critic of migration policies, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, says the measures won't work because of the short duration for which migrants were required to stay in the regions.
The new measures would require migrants to stay for at least 12 months.
Mr Peters says they should be required to stay for between three and five years. He believes the measures are a "dog whistle" by a government trying to look like it's doing something.
* What's your view? Email: editor@dailypost.co.nz.
Coming here
* Statistics New Zealand data shows 115,655 people immigrated to New Zealand in the year to June 2015. The most common country of origin of new migrants was Australia, with 24,061 arriving from there.
* The next was the United Kingdom. Figures show 13,526 arrived from there in the year to June 2015. Third was India at 13,266.
* In the year to June 2014, 100,784 new migrants arrived in New Zealand. In the year to June 2013 that figure was 88,235.
Welcome mat
New measures to take effect from November 1 include:
* Boosting the bonus points for skilled migrants applying for residence with a job offer outside Auckland from 10 to 30 points.
* Doubling the points for entrepreneurs planning to set up businesses in the regions under the Entrepreneur Work Visa from 20 to 40 points.
* Streamlining the labour market test to provide employers with more certainty, earlier in the visa application process.
