Come home, Government urges Kiwis abroad

The Government is preparing a major campaign to lure hundreds of thousands of Kiwis home and increasing pressure on officials to fill migrant quotas as it tries to plug growing job vacancies.

But it is so far resisting employer calls to increase immigration to cope with the problem, brought about by a drop in unemployment.

It says the skilled migrant quota won't be reviewed until next year.

The Australian Government is under similar pressure.

The push to increase temporary unskilled migrant numbers was growing and the Government would increase the skilled migrant intake by 20,000, the Australian newspaper reported at the weekend.

If the New Zealand Government has its way, Australia might find itself battling to keep the several hundred thousand skilled Kiwis bolstering its workforce.

Labour and Immigration Minister Paul Swain told the Herald yesterday he would shortly unveil details of a major campaign to bring expatriate New Zealanders back home.

"There are potentially 600,000 working New Zealanders overseas and a lot of them are obviously in Australia. We are going to have quite a big campaign around that."

Mr Swain said it would involve better recruitment use of overseas-based immigration and foreign affairs officials.

He was also investigating creative ways to encourage families here - particularly grandparents - to attract people home.

"There's a lot of Kiwis who have been away for maybe longer than five years who do not know exactly what has happened here. The fact that we have got an economy booming, the fact that we have skill shortages, the fact that we need them home."

Research indicated that apart from All Black wins, little information filtered through to expatriate New Zealanders.

It also indicated people were willing to accept lower wages for a better quality of life - although it was unclear just how much of a compromise people would make.

At the same time Mr Swain revealed intense pressure was being put on the Immigration Service to improve the turnaround time of skilled migrant applications.

The Government's immigration quota for the year is 45,000 - with room for 5000 additional places.

The Government has already indicated it would prefer the number to be closer to 50,000.

But with two-thirds of the financial year over, only 25,694 residency applications have been approved.

National Immigration spokesman Tony Ryall said yesterday he did not believe Government would meet the target because of its "chaotic" and ever-changing immigration policy, which had sent mixed messages.

The Government introduced a new system for skilled migrants in late 2003, but significantly altered the points entry system last year after residency applications plummeted.

Mr Swain - who conceded the single strongest message from employers was to increase numbers - said he was concerned about meeting the target last year.

Increasing competition from Australia, Canada and Britain had exacerbated the problem.

But he believed the enhancements announced in December and pressure on the Immigration Service meant the target would now be met.

Mr Swain said the 45,000 target had been set in 2003 and the Government wanted the new system bedded in before it was reviewed.