The Hard Stuff With Nigel Latta - The New New Zealand

This feels more home to me than China. I've been here for 13 years. This is home.

– Chinese immigrant Lei on Aotearoa feeling like her home

So in the last year, I've sold 49 houses totalling about 100 million dollars worth of property. So average selling price is two million dollars. Of those 49 people, eight were Chinese.

– Ray White real estate agent Heather Walton breaks down her property statistics

We all came here mainly because of my daughter. We want to give her a better education, better life.

– Chinese immigrant Diana on her family's reason for moving to New Zealand, near the start of this episode

There are plenty of jobs here for Kiwis and migrants alike, at this particular moment in time.

– English immigrant Mark on there being more than enough jobs to go around

Immigration is really here because it contributes to New Zealand's development as a country from an economic perspective, from a social perspective, and in terms of us being connected internationally.

– Nigel Bickle from government agency Immigration New Zealand, on what immigrants contribute

My entire family is in India, and we are just seperating from them. I know it's a tough situation that we have to face, but we are doing this for the better future of my son.

– Karthik on looking for a job in Aotearoa, while his family is in India

...There's no evidence for that. It does not occur. So, immigrants come in and they fill very different jobs, or they fill gaps in our labour market requirements. So people should be assured, that there might be some exceptions, but by and large the evidence is quite clear — they do not take jobs from New Zealanders.

– Sociologist Paul Spoonley refutes the idea that immigrants steal jobs from New Zealanders

It's long hours. I think it's working harder to get a better life.

– Chinese immigrant Diana on a member of her family working two jobs with a 60 hour week

While roughly the same number of Pacific Islanders and British stayed in the country illegally, police Dawn Raids saw mainly Pacific Islanders prosecuted for overstaying.

– Presenter Nigel Latta on the 1970s Dawn Raids

Two reasons, I think. One of them is that we don't understand other people, and are suspicious of them. So they look different, sound different. And so that's a basic human characteristic really. And to get over that, contact is important. The second, is that very often, anti-immigrant hostility is associated with economic downturns.

– Sociologist Paul Spoonley is asked what causes people to be anti-immigrants

You're going to get 10 points for your age, 60 points for having a recognised masters degree, 20 years of work that is related to your masters degree is going to give you another 30 points. So that's going to leave you on 120 points. You can now go and file your expression of interest in residency, and you will not be selected.

– Immigration consultant Iain Macleod concludes that Nigel likely wouldn’t make the first cut to get into NZ If he was an immigrant, near the start of the episode

I came from Serbia. I was working as a vet back home. When we arrived, I discovered that actually my degree is not recognised. It was a surprise to find out that I can not practise.

– Serbian immigrant (and taxi driver) Brankov says he can't work in a job he is qualified for

...two out of three of our taxi drivers were born overseas, and of those drivers, one in four of them have a university qualification, which means they're five times more likely than a New Zealand-born driver to have a degree.

– Presenter Nigel Latta checks the statistics, while taking a taxi in downtown Wellington

Can a small country sustain large numbers of people coming in?

– Nigel wonders if Aotearoa is big enough for everyone, at the start of this episode

All of a sudden the city needed lots of people to rebuild it, more than New Zealand could supply. Christchurch needed immigrants. Around half of the 35,000 rebuild workers are immigrants, though a lot of those people are on short-term visas.

– Presenter Nigel Latta on Christchurch needing workers to rebuild after the quakes

If I can use the analogy of food, when I was growing up, we were a meat and three veg family. And that was it. Now, there's just a smorgasbord.

– Rangitoto College Principal David Hodge on changes in the nationalities of students since he was a student

The reality is that we are incredibly selective about who we let in. New Zealand's full of average people, and what the governmentis looking for above average people.

– IMMagine Immigration consultant Iain Macleod