Buoyant job market sees more migrants in work

The number of recent working-age migrants from Asia, South Africa and Britain collecting the dole has fallen 77 per cent over the past five years, outstripping the 36 per cent fall in overall unemployment.

The Ministry of Social Development tallied benefits paid to migrants and refugees aged 18 to 64 from four of our most important migrant markets - China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan; India; South Africa; and Britain - in the past six Decembers.

The migrants all arrived in New Zealand in the five years to December 2005. Recognised refugees could go on benefits straightaway but migrants faced a two-year stand-down period.

"The overall unemployment register is looking extremely healthy and there's no doubt the buoyant labour market has helped to reduce unemployment figures," said Sally Ewer, Work and Income's Auckland migrant and refugee services manager.

Other influences driving benefit numbers down included the Immigration Service's closer focus on would-be migrants with job offers, who would not need to rely on the state. Ms Ewer said some migrants were securing jobs overseas as competition for skills increased in other developed countries.

She also credited some of the fall to Work and Income's refugee and migrant strategy in Auckland, where around 70 per cent of migrants settled. The strategy centred on multi-lingual work brokers of diverse backgrounds to help migrants over employment barriers. Migrants were engaged in English training and specialised work programmes and referred to multi-cultural service centres.

Ms Ewer said that as the migrant community swelled, the work brokers were increasingly dealing with migrant employers, who also helped migrants find jobs.

However, the ministry figures also revealed a rise in the number of Asian, South African and British recent migrants on sickness benefits - 370 last December.

Ms Ewer said some migrants would have moved from the dole to the sickness benefit, suffering from unemployment-related ill-health such as depression.

"Migrants have made a conscious choice to come here and the expectation is that they will find work readily," she said. "When they don't, people can get quite seriously depressed and develop the health problems which accompany unemployment."

Some jobless migrants had arrived under earlier immigration criteria, which gave less emphasis to matching skills to the job market.

Ms Ewer said some employers were still "cautious" about employing migrants, and feared that small workplaces could be negatively affected if someone of a different background came on board.

MIGRANTS ON THE DOLE

China, Hong Kong, Taiwan: 1082 (Dec 2000); 256 (Dec 2005)

India: 622 (Dec 2000); 120 (Dec 2005)

South Africa: 83 (Dec 2000); 21 (Dec 2005)

Britain: 200 (Dec 2000); 44 (Dec 2005)

Numbers on the dole nationally in December 2005: 51,500