Chinanews.com, February 22. According to the New Zealand Chinese Herald, Statistics New Zealand recently stated that due to border closures since March last year that restrict immigration and entry, the annual net immigrants continue to decline steadily. During the year, there were only 44,100 net immigrants, and the annual number of immigrants in and out of the country set a record for 20 years.

  Estimates of immigration data since 2001 show that the number of inbound and outbound immigrants in 2020 is the lowest in the past 20 years.

  However, due to more immigrants (85,800) than immigrants (41,600), net immigration in 2020 is still positive (44,100), 87% of which occurred in the first three before the border closure in March 2020 month.

  The demographic indicators manager said: "Compared with the level in recent years, since March 2020, the monthly net migration has been a trickle, and the annual net migration has therefore also been declining."

  "Before the border closures and travel restrictions were implemented in March 2020, the annual net migration number has increased and has been decreasing since then... Due to the slowdown in net migration, New Zealand's population growth rate is lower than at any time in the past 7 years ."

Net immigration growth continues to be driven by New Zealand citizens

  Since border restrictions were imposed in March 2020, net migration growth has been driven by New Zealand citizens.

  From April to December 2020, there was a net increase of 5,700 immigrants in New Zealand, of which a net increase of 12,600 were New Zealand citizens and a net decrease of 6,900 non-New Zealand citizens.

  The Demographic Indicators manager said that New Zealand citizens are driving a small increase in net immigration and continue to reverse the historical pattern of net immigration growth mainly dominated by non-New Zealand citizens.

  In 2020, there are very few New Zealand citizens leaving the country, and the number of New Zealand citizens entering the country is only slightly lower than in previous years.

As of December 2020, 33,500 New Zealand citizens have returned home.

  In the definition of the Bureau of Statistics, if a New Zealand citizen or non-citizen has lived here for a total of 12 months in the 16 months after arriving in New Zealand, it is called an immigrant.

If a New Zealand citizen or non-citizen is absent from New Zealand for a total of 12 months in the 16 months after departure, it is called a departure immigrant.

Net immigration is the difference between inbound and outbound immigrants.

In 2020, the number of entry and exit trips will drop by 75%

  As for the number of entry and exit, in 2020, there will be only 3.5 million entry and exit, which is 10.7 million (75%) less than in 2019.

The immigration personnel counted by the Immigration Bureau include all short-term and long-term immigration personnel.

  In the nine months from April to December 2020, the total number of entry and exit passengers was only 240,800, of which 90,400 were inbound and 154,400 were departing.

But in the same period of 2019, the number of arrivals reached 5.2 million and the number of departures reached 5.1 million.

  In these nine months, 65% (59 thousand passengers) of immigrants were New Zealand citizens and 35% (31,400 passengers) were non-New Zealand citizens.

  76% (114,900 passengers) of departing persons were non-New Zealand citizens, and 24% (35,500 passengers) were New Zealand citizens.

  The above "non-New Zealand citizens" include: those who enter the country with visas for residence, work or key purposes; Australian citizens and permanent residents; and other people who meet the entry criteria.