Big rise in the number of migrants aged 65 and above gaining NZ residency

Import more old people so they can place a burden on healthcare and aged care and other services so we have an excuse to import more young people to look after them ... the road to El Dorado beckons. 

Labour re-opened the Parents Visa, which National had shut down. Obviously, when the 210,000 temporary immigrants were all made permanent residents by Jacinda in 2021, they immediately qualified to bring over their parents and grandparents.

National need to shut this visa down again. There is no capacity in the health system to cope with more elderly people. Not to mention the fact that taxpayers will be forced to cough up a fully funded Govt pension for them in 10 years time.

Why?

Will be interesting to know how this surge is outpacing the rising numbers of immigrants of other ages, I didn't see this comparison in the article.  



Immigration into NZ surged in general. Or is the surge especially pronounced in regards to the "over50 y/o" migrants?

Which countries are they coming from?

There is a huge gap in this reporting. although briefly mentioned, the concern of health care needs is legitimate. Is there a requirement for health insurance or some other means to have your health care covered? Plus how are they supported? Despite the fact that I am usually against the often ageist complaints about the cost of the pension in NZ for locals, I do believe that immigrants should not be able to arrive here and claim the pension. Even the mentioned 10 year period is too short i feel.

Great news for Winnie & Shame..they will be in power for much longer!

The real concern here is surely the burden on healthcare resources. Anybody called an ambulance or been to ED lately? 

Just what we don't need.

The old coming and the young leave.

This Government need to get there act together and get something done.

Fascinating statistics, but far greater insights are required in order to make sense of this change in demographics. For example where are they coming from, are they retired or working, how wealthy are they.

I could suggest that the vast majority are coming here to reside at some of the new luxury golf resorts such as Te Arai Links and Tara Iti near to Mangawhai bringing with them massive wealth and funds and greatly contributing to local industry and employment.

But who knows?

Would be interesting to see this in relation to the total number of migrants. The number for the year ending May 2024 is broadly consistent with the numbers in 2015/2016, but higher than the prepandemic years of 2017/2018, but you can't really say if it's just a catch up, or returning to those levels.

We must be the laughing stock of these countries, where these older migrants are coming from ......you can get your parents over here to look after you kids, and while you work back in a business in your home country  and while you supply chains etc are all you home country, your kids are getting a free education  - while your parents get free healthcare ....and a pension after 10 years. 

Does anyone in Wellington ever sit down and work out the health costs to these people over 65, who have never paid tax or lived before in NZ ? 

What some of these older immigrants (often parents who followed their kids to NZ) do is return to their homeland for a bit under 6 months each year - and they receive super the whole time and spend it in their homeland. So long as they spend no more than 6 months of the year outside of NZ, they get their full pension. This is particularly prevalent in the Thai community. My wife is Thai and we're plugged in to the local Thai community. Some of these older Thais never worked a minute in NZ, never paid any income tax, yet receive $500 / week from the taxpayer and will do so until the day they die.

Can't anybody see that it's all political.   These overseas oldies coming in under National are obviously going to vote National as do their children who have already gained citizenship, just as Labour was hoping that all the immigrants would be repaying them by voting for Labour.

It also provides a sort of "padding" against the likes of Te Pati and the now-Maori Green Party gaining too much political power.

I have always maintained that the Indians will eventually swamp NZ and end up politically running the country.

On the other hand Indians are probably the only educated peoples that would tolerate our horrendous crime statistics a lot of which are perpetrated by other ethnic imports.

We simply need better data across the migration landscape. Do we know if all the young and educated are leaving and are being replaced by the low skilled and elderly? Do we even have the data to refute or confirm this? 

Most (none?) of the comments thus far don't question what assets & skills these older people are bringing with them. Surely that's extremely relevant?

Why is that? Ageism?

Of course, because they opened the parent residency visa again. 

If they finance themselves/have sponsors it shouldn't bother anyone, just a few thousands a year.

They are not entitled to a pension, that's for sure!

Once upon a time there was a shire called NZ, inhabited by kind, simple folk who believed they were the centre of the world, well sort of because most didn’t really know what was out in the world apart from social media.

They gossiped and squabbled over cats up a tree, colour of power poles and liked another holiday each year to be added. All the problems were the fault of the government, which no one was interested in, but always wanted the government and taxpayer to fix any problem or they were responsible for any problem. 

They couldn’t do maths very well but the taxpayer could provide a continuous flow of new money for anything they needed. Likewise counting things like nuts and bolts was a bit hard or reading a speedo on a car.

Rules and systems are for those Woke types and what the heck is a operating manual - only weird people who like that education thing bother with that nonsense, in fact those types cause all the problems (apart from the fact they designed and built all the good stuff I need)

The banks were ripping them off because they expected to be paid back and they wanted interest on the money the simple folk had needed for useful stuff on Temu and other online sites.

They needed more people to come here to work as they were a bit tired and needed a rest, fine bring the family the taxpayer will look after them, that taxpayer has plenty of money.

Sounds like you could make a few fantasy trilogies about this lot.

The flip side: a Kiwi guy I know aged 70 who returned here to live after decades overseas in a very niche job he loved  and excelled at and which had no equivalent in NZ. he spent the first 20-30 years of his life here but fails to qualify for Super as  he can't meet the criteria of 5 years of residency after 50.

he owns a  house in a remote area and lives off his modest savings. (There was no employer pension plan for foreigners, in his overseas job). He is now physically/mentally not up to much, but is too proud to ask for state help.

I am told it will be up to 8 or 9 years before he qualifies for Super, by which time he could well be dead.

All his ancestors arrived her from Britain in the 1850s, some fought and died in wars to defend NZ.