Indians are leading the pack of migrants taking up New Zealand citizenship for the second year running new government data shows.
As of November 27, 2023, nearly 18 per cent of those who became Kiwi citizens this year were of Indian origin, according to data by the internal affairs department. “Indians are currently the top nationality granted New Zealand citizenship in 2023,” says Julia Wootton, General Manager, Services and Access at Department of Internal Affairs.
“This year as of November 27, 32,199 people have been granted NZ citizenship and 5,982 are Indians by birth.”
The United Kingdom (4,326) and the Philippines (3,491) are among the top three countries in the list. Indians dominated the list in 2022 too. They didn’t just top the charts. At 20 per cent, they hogged a lion’s share of those taking up Kiwi citizenship, the maximum share by any nationality since 2018. Last year, a whopping 8,159 Indians were granted New Zealand citizenship, out of a total of 40,355, the most number of citizenships granted in a single year since 2018.
Explaining the same, Jeremy Williams, Manager Services and Access at Department of Internal Affairs, says, “The increase in 2022 is likely due to a change we implemented, which led to approximately four times as many applications being approved between April and October than previous years. “This change was to reduce our Citizenship Work In Progress. As many Indian applicants have skilled migrant visas, they are able to be processed faster.”
For nearly a decade, Indians have been among the top on this yardstick. Between January 1, 2013 and November 17, 2023, Indians were second only to those from the United Kingdom–including England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Great Britain), trailed by South Africa.
Rahul Sen, Senior Lecturer, School of Economics at Auckland, Auckland University of Technology (AUT) says, “This trend is very encouraging to see in terms of addressing critical skill shortages in NZ for the longer term.“As of 2019, Indians contributed an estimated $10 billion to the economy, and that figure is likely to go up further as most of these would be professionals.” Sen points out it is also important to ensure jobs that are commensurate with the skills of these new migrants are available.
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