Gender, mobility and migration into New Zealand: a case study of Asian migration.

• Author: Badkar, Juthika
• Position: Report - Case study

Abstract

Skilled migration flows into New Zealand are important to the Department of Labour's goal of building New Zealand's workforce and attracting (and retaining) talent to contribute to the nation's economic transformation. Globally, female migrants constitute nearly half of all migrants in developed and developing countries. This global presence of women in migration is also reflected in the increase of women using what have previously been male-dominated migration streams. This research paper focuses on the migration of Asian women into New Zealand for two reasons. Firstly, Asian migrants are a significant and increasing source of skilled labour, which New Zealand is in competition for; and secondly, the 2006 Census shows that in key working-age groups there are significantly more Asian women than men living in New Zealand. The Department of Labour's databases were analysed to calculate trends and gender ratios in migrants entering New Zealand through the Skilled/ Business stream and Temporary categories from 1997/98 to 2005/06 as principal applicants. Our results show that although men dominate the overall Skilled/Business stream and Temporary categories, there is large diversity by nationality and women from some Asian countries are critical players in the migration process. Census data, which represent the net result of inflows and outflows, suggest that there have been more Asian women than men migrating to New Zealand. Department of Labour immigration data do not fully support this overall gendered migration from Asia, but consideration of gender, age, country of origin and migration stream uncovers much complexity within these overall flows.

INTRODUCTION

New Zealand has a long history of gendered migration, and this has affected the overall gender balance in the population. (2,3) Apart from brief periods in World War 1, the 1918 influenza pandemic and World War 2, official records show that from the time of European colonisation through to 1968 there were more men than women in the total New Zealand population. However, since 1968 there have, at each census, been more women than men living in New Zealand. This partly relates to the ageing of the population, with more women, due to gender differences in mortality rates, in the older age groups. However, the census data also show that in the prime working-age groups there has been an increasing imbalance between women and men; for example, the 2006 Census indicated that there were over 57,000 more women than men in the broad 25-49 years age group. Differences in mortality cannot explain this, and while undercount is a factor, a key driver has to be gendered migration (Callister et al. 2005).

Research by Callister and colleagues has shown that when ethnicity is considered, 2001 Census data indicate that the overall imbalance between Asian women and men living in New Zealand was especially pronounced, with 26% more Asian women than men in the broad 25-49 years age group, and 37% more in the 30-34 years age group. (4) Their research also indicates that inward migration has been a component of this imbalance, with the strongest imbalance in flows in the 25-29 years age group. In this age group in the 1995-2004 period there was a net Permanent Long Term (PLT) gain of 9,824 Asian men as against 14,064 Asian women.

There have been people of Asian ethnicity living in New Zealand from the early days of European settlement, but initially the numbers were very small and heavily weighted towards males. However, in the 1980s and 1990s the number of people of Asian ethnicity grew rapidly. This growth is not surprising given that Asia is home to nearly 60% of the world's population, and China is the world's largest country with a population of 1.3 billion people in 2006 (Hugo 2006, 2007). (5) Due to its size, but also its recent liberalisation of movement of people, China is an increasingly important source of global migrants (Hugo 2007). It is therefore to be expected that Asia will be an important source of migrants to all high-income countries. Given that New Zealand wants to identify, attract and target skilled migrants, Asia is therefore an obvious source of such migrants. As will be shown, Asia, and particularly China, has also become an important source of international students.

Despite the growing significance of the global feminisation of migration, including the feminisation of labour-market-related migration, this area has received little research or policy attention in New Zealand. Patterns of gendered migration from Asian economies have received even less attention, despite the recent growth in migration from these countries. Hugo (2006) notes two important issues that need to be considered when undertaking research and policy development in this area. The first is the difficulty of generalising given the enormous diversity within the Asian region in terms of size, resources, economic development and cultural, ethnic, political and religious orientation. Secondly, the increase in migration from Asia has not been matched by an analysis of the composition of these flows (Hugo 2006). This paper attempts to provide a starting point for discussions about gender and migration by using Asian migration as a case study.

BACKGROUND

Chapple (2000) claims that prior to colonisation, differences in mortality meant that there were more Maori men than Maori women. In addition, gendered migration meant that in the early period of European migration to New Zealand Pakeha men vastly outnumbered Pakeha women (Arnold 1982). This was a pattern also seen in major migration flows from Europe to the main settler countries of Canada, the United States, Australia and South Africa. As an example of early New Zealand migration, Dalmatians came during the latter years of the nineteenth century to escape the depressed economic conditions of their homeland. Of the original 5,468 settlers between 1897 and 1919, only 177 were women (Stoffel 1982). Another example was the early migration by Chinese. Although most men were married, their wives remained in China, so the sex ratio of the community was extremely unbalanced. For example, there were only nine women to 4,995 men in 1881 (Ip 2007).

A number of factors--most not unique to New Zealand--drove this strongly male migration. Migration policy had an effect on some of these flows, such as restricting the migration of Chinese women in 1925, but the nature of the economy has always been a strong driver (6) (Ip 2007, Fraser and Pickles 2002). Initially, most of the jobs were in the primary sector, with gold mining, timber extraction and farming being key employers. Later the manufacturing sector emerged, but again primarily attracted skilled males in areas such as the trades. In these early periods, the women who migrated to New Zealand came either as wives of migrants, as potential wives, or as a source of domestic labour (Fraser and Pickles 2002, Hastings 2006). Thus marriage markets and labour markets have long been a driver of female migration.

Although there has always been some female component to migration flows, over the last 20 years the gender balance of international migration flows has changed considerably in response to a number of factors, including gender-selective demand for foreign labour, economic development, and subsequent changes in gender relations in countries of origin and countries of destination. According to an International Labour Organization (2003) report, female migrants constitute nearly 51% of all migrants into developed countries and about 46% of all migrants into developing countries. In most developing regions females are increasingly migrating independently, not just as dependants or family members (Sorensen 2004). Castles and Miller (2003) have described the consequences of all these trends as an "increasing feminisation of migration at a global level".

In part, the size of the various streams of migration influences the overall gender composition of migration. Researchers and policymakers have tended to divide migration into two groups: permanent and (historically of lesser importance in New Zealand) temporary migration. Although these two categories are now not entirely separable, they nevertheless provide an initial analytical framework in which to consider gendered migration.

Permanent Migration

In the New Zealand Residence Programme, 60% of the places are allocated to the Skilled/Business stream, followed by 30% to the Family Sponsored and 10% to the International / Humanitarian streams.

Most countries endeavour to attract skilled workers, and skilled migration is currently the most important source of new migrants for New Zealand. Historically, skilled migrants have tended to be male, but women are increasingly participating in tertiary education at high levels (and now higher than men in all the main developed countries). This delays marriage and childbearing, making women increasingly mobile (Dumont et al. 2007). Also, some well-educated women may want to migrate to escape restrictive cultures. Women today increasingly migrate independently and/or for work purposes (Carling 2005). Even when women migrate to join family and spouses, given that marriage markets tend to bring together similarly qualified people, female partners of skilled migrants are likely to be skilled and want to work in the destination country.

One area in New Zealand where skilled migrants are a very important part of the workforce is the health sector. For instance, an estimated 41% of doctors working in New Zealand hospitals were trained overseas, with a significant number coming from Asia (Chisholm 2007). Stilwell et al. (2004) note that African and Asian nurses fill the gaps in the health sectors in countries such as the UK and USA, and suggest that this will continue in the near future. The United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) also note that recourse to foreign nurses in...