Temporary migration and regional development amidst Covid‐19: Invercargill and Queenstown

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between temporary migration and regional development in the context of the Covid‐19 global pandemic. Focusing specifically on Invercargill and Queenstown in Aotearoa New Zealand, I outline how temporary migration has become central to population growth and economic prosperity and how this relationship has been disrupted by the onset of border controls in response to Covid‐19. The paper outlines how the pandemic has revealed several challenges associated with temporary migration, including mismatches between the national management of migration and the local impacts, the availability of suitable data to understand migration, and the path dependency associated with population growth reliant on temporary migration.

New Zealand border restrictions amidst COVID-19 and their impacts on temporary migrant workers

“…According to media reports, despite the border exemption policy, family unification for temporary migrant workers with partners and children during the pandemic was extremely difficult ( Radio New Zealand, 2021 , 2022 ). In addition, research findings also show how little the government considered the specific cultural needs of migrant groups from different cultural backgrounds in the formulation of the sanitization policy ( Collins, 2020 , 2021 ). For example, 1 News New Zealand reported a case that an Indian woman intended to join her future husband in Auckland with a culturally arranged marriage visitor visa but was blocked from getting on the plane.…”

“…5 Temporary work visa holders come to the country with an offer of a temporary residence status with possibilities to transit to a permanent resident status, depending on their eligibility and migration outcomes, as evidenced by the accumulation of education and work experience ( Spoonley and Bedford, 2012 ). This transitional immigration pathway has been described as “permanent temporariness” ( Collins, 2021 : 194). Under this situation, migrants are regarded simply as a tool for addressing New Zealand’s labor market gaps to support economic development but withholding permanent residence status for them ( Collins, 2018 , 2020 , 2021 ).…”

“…This transitional immigration pathway has been described as “permanent temporariness” ( Collins, 2021 : 194). Under this situation, migrants are regarded simply as a tool for addressing New Zealand’s labor market gaps to support economic development but withholding permanent residence status for them ( Collins, 2018 , 2020 , 2021 ).…”

“…However, the 2021 Resident Visa is only a short-term solution to the crisis faced by New Zealand’s immigration system ( Liu, 2021 ). The immigration minister’s statement when he mentioned that this one-off residence pathway “provides certainty to migrants and business” ( Faafoi, 2021 ) suggests official recognition of the flaws in New Zealand’s approach to temporary migration and how these were revealed by the COVID-19 pandemic ( Collins, 2021 ). As the research note will show, the COVID-19 pandemic did not create these problems, but it brought to the surface some deep-rooted problems of the country’s migration policy setting and management.…”

“…Since the early 2000s, New Zealand's migration policy regime has been shifting from encouraging permanent settlement migration towards regulating and managing multiple streams of temporary visas with possibilities of obtaining permanent residence status (Collins, 2018(Collins, , 2021. Under this migration policy regime, there are two major immigration pathways for migrants to acquire long-term resident visas.…”