Skilled immigrants ‘beneficial’

Press, 9 February 1982, Page 12

Skilled immigrants ‘beneficial’

The importing of skilled workers for the construction of the Government’s big energy projects would benefit New Zealand, according to a report by Mr J. E. McGill, a former research officer ofthe Institute of Economic Research. The director of the institute, Mr Brian Easton, said from Wellington that the fact that skilled immigrants might be needed was not a reflection on the adequacy of training of New Zealanders. “The big projects have been, launched only in the last'two years and economists have been mainly

disputing whether they should go ahead. Now we are looking at the finer details, and one of the things that is _ worrying us is that there will ’ be a sharp demand for skilled labour yet there has been no authoritative study to show where that labour will come from," he said. Immigration was one of the options open, and the report by Mr McGill, now in London, had contributed by showing that in the circumstances prevailing, and provided that they went into the industries creating or saving foreign exchange, the skilled immigrants would benefit

New Zealand. The study draws on statistics from sources in the early 19705. It uses these base figures to compile a simulated study of the economic effects of immigration. Mr McGill studied the economic impact of immigrants from Australia, the United Kingdom, North America, and the Pacific. He found that the North Americans, because they were generally more skilled, contributed a third more to net production than those from Australia and the United Kingdom, and more than double those from the Paci-

fic. But the North American also placed a correspondingly greater strain on the balance of payments because of his consumption of imported goods. These calculations applied where there was space capacity in the economy. If there had to be a programme of industrial and social investment, in such things' as housing. the study found that the new arrivals’ total consumption exceeded their total production. But after three years the investment had been made and the migrant became a net contributor to the economy.