NEW ZEALAND IMMIGRATION NEWS

New Zealand matching immigrants with right jobs

Tuesday, 4 March 2008

New Zealand seems to be getting it right when putting immigrants and jobs together.

Balancing the brain drain has long been a controversial issue in some countries, especially where immigration is a concern.

Overseas workers arriving in their new country, only to find themselves in a job, way below their outstanding qualifications, is a situation feared by many qualified professionals immigrating to a new country.

But a new OECD report, "Profile of Immigration Populations in the 21st Century", puts New Zealand at the top when it comes to matching immigrants with the right jobs.

The report is based on 2000 data, and OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría explained that the aim was to find ways to design and implement better integration policies.

"Addressing the problem of over-qualification is all the more urgent as a growing number of countries want to attract more high-skilled immigrants on the grounds that they will help boost economic growth and have fewer difficulties integrating into society," said Mr Gurria.

The biggest challenge for some countries was to match the qualifications of immigrants with the available jobs.

The good news is that New Zealand rated best when it came to this. Greece, on the other hand, was the worst, with their migrants three times more likely to be over-qualified.

"The better targeted immigration policies are where the more successful integration will be. This in turn will help reduce the risk of political backlash against immigrants," Mr Gurria said.

He stressed that much greater emphasis needs to be put on helping recent immigrants learn the host-country's language and become familiar with workplace practices.

It's also been found that immigrants to OECD countries are better educated on average than native-born people, with nearly one in four having completed tertiary education compared to one in five native-born.

A good example is by looking at how many people have PhDs in science and engineering. In New Zealand, as well as in Canada and Norway, the share of people who do have this qualification is three times higher among the immigrants than among the native-born population.

The opposite of the issue is just as important, which is to address the need to fill lower-skilled jobs with appropriate immigrants, rather than over-qualified ones.

The way a country's labour market works has a strong influence on how effectively migrants integrate, and once again, New Zealand doesn't fail to impress, as its relatively low regulation in this regard is a bonus.

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