Kanwalpreet Kaur
New Zealand must not only attract talent from around the world—it must remain a country
where its own young people can see a future.
For generations, New Zealand has represented opportunity.
For those born here, it has offered the promise of a good education, meaningful work, home
ownership and a quality of life admired around the world. For migrants, that promise has
been one of the strongest reasons for choosing New Zealand and building a new life
thousands of kilometres from home.
Many migrant parents have made enormous sacrifices for precisely that reason. They did
not simply move countries for themselves. They moved because they believed their children
would have greater opportunities, security and a better future.
But today, there is a question worth asking:
Are we building a New Zealand our children will want to stay in?
The question is not about discouraging young New Zealanders from travelling.
An overseas experience can be enormously valuable. Young people should explore the
world, study internationally, develop their careers and experience different cultures. New
Zealand has always had generations who travelled abroad before returning with greater
experience and new ideas.
The concern arises when leaving becomes less about experience and more about believing
that a secure future cannot be built here.
Housing is an obvious part of that conversation.
Home ownership remains an important aspiration for many New Zealanders, yet getting
onto the property ladder can require significant income, savings and borrowing. Reserve
Bank data shows that substantial mortgage lending continues to go to first-home buyers,
including lending at relatively high debt-to-income ratios.
The issue, therefore, is not simply whether houses are being bought. It is what level of
financial commitment young households must make to buy them.
Then there is employment.
New Zealand's economic recovery is underway, but it is not being experienced equally. The
Reserve Bank's latest assessment describes the recovery as uneven, with weak income
growth and job insecurity continuing to weigh on households, particularly in Auckland and
Wellington.
For a young person deciding where to begin a career, these realities matter.
If the same qualification can provide a higher salary, broader professional opportunities and
potentially greater financial security overseas, we should not be surprised when young New
Zealanders consider that option.
The answer, however, cannot simply be to tell them to stay.
We have to give them reasons to stay—and reasons to come back.
That means ensuring our education system equips young people not only with
qualifications, but with skills that translate into genuine opportunity. It means creating an
economy where businesses can grow, entrepreneurs are encouraged, innovation is
rewarded and talented people can see a pathway to advancement without believing they
have to leave the country to achieve it.
It also means recognising that quality of life is about more than salary.
New Zealand still has enormous strengths. We have strong communities, extraordinary
natural surroundings, comparatively good work-life balance, cultural diversity and a society
where people from very different backgrounds can build a sense of belonging.
Those advantages should never be underestimated.
Nor should this discussion become another exercise in declaring that everything is wrong
with New Zealand. It is not.
The challenge is to protect what makes this country special while being willing to confront
the areas where the next generation expects better.
This matters particularly to our migrant communities.
Parents who arrived from India, China, the Philippines, South Africa, the Pacific and many
other parts of the world often worked extremely hard to establish themselves. Some started
again professionally. Others worked long hours, built businesses or accepted jobs below
their previous level while establishing a new life.
Their children are growing up differently.
They are not necessarily comparing New Zealand with the country their parents left. They
are comparing New Zealand with Australia, Britain, the United States, Canada, Singapore
and an increasingly connected global employment market.
Their expectations will therefore be different—and that is not a lack of gratitude.
It is a reality of a generation with choices.
As New Zealand approaches another election, political parties will offer competing solutions
on housing, education, taxation, employment, infrastructure and the cost of living.
Those debates matter.
But perhaps one useful test of any long-term policy is surprisingly simple:
Will this make New Zealand a better place for the next generation to build its future?
Not just next year. Not just until the next election. But ten, twenty and thirty years from
now.
We should want young New Zealanders to explore the world. We should celebrate when
they succeed internationally.
But we should also want them to look homeward and see opportunity.
We should want the engineer working in Sydney, the doctor training in London, the
entrepreneur building experience in Singapore and the graduate beginning a career
overseas to believe that returning to New Zealand remains an attractive choice.
Because attracting skilled people to New Zealand is important.
Keeping the talent we already have is just as important.
The success of a country cannot be measured only by how many people want to come
through its doors.
It should also be measured by how many of its own people still want to call it home.
