New Zealand Immigration Minister Erica Stanford speaks to the media before question time at Parliament House in Wellington on 12 December 2023. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Mark Coote) 
The changes include measures such as introducing an English language requirement for low-skilled jobs and setting a minimum skills and work experience threshold for most employer work visas. The maximum continuous stay for most low-skilled roles will also be reduced to three years from five.
“The government is focused on attracting and retaining the highly skilled migrants such as secondary teachers, where there is a skill shortage,” Immigration Minister Erica Stanford said.
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“At the same time we need to ensure that New Zealanders are put to the front of the line for jobs where there are no skills shortages,” she said.
In 2023, a near-record 173,000 people had migrated to New Zealand.
New Zealand, which has a population of about 5.1 million, has seen a rapid growth in its migrant numbers since the end of the pandemic, raising concerns in 2023 that it was fanning inflation.
Neighbouring Australia, which has also seen a big jump in migrants, has said it would halve its migrant intake over the next two years. Reuters/DM
(Reporting by Praveen Menon)