New Zealand and Asiatic migration

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
In discussions of migration, undue prominence is frequently given to the spectacular case where people tear themselves from family, home and country, and quit for good, having irrevocably decided to grow roots in a new world. The mechanics of migratory processes, however, can be clarified considerably when greater attention is paid to the more fluid, seasonal, or temporary movements of workers which are not undertaken, in the first instance, with a definite commitment of becoming permanent settlers. As an example, Indian migration in Burma is discussed in detail, and it is shown that it has given rise to what economists would call a ‘perfect labour market’. Perfection in the technical sense of economics does not mean, however, that this experiment has been an altogether happy episode. European migration to New Zealand provides a stark contrast to such fluid movements. The high costs which result from the remoteness of the European reservoirs of manpower have led in New Zealand to the establishment of a labour market which is extremely rigid. It is a situation which implies serious disadvantages for economic progress and dangers for social cohesion, and it raises difficult issues of balance between the great advantages of ethnic homogeneity and the price that has to be paid for it by having a rather inflexible economic system. By excluding Asiatics—who would have had a considerable comparative advantage over European migrants—New Zealand's statesmen have staked an ambitious claim of being able to find a wise course through these bewildering tangles. It is suggested, however, that their task may be made easier by the emergence of some new demographic factors: the astonishing recovery of the Maoris, and the new trends of population growth that are gradually becoming visible in the world of the Pacific Islands.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: