NZ's relaxed lifestyle biggest drawcard

[MotherBear]

Lifestyle biggest drawcard to NZ
1:27PM Monday May 19, 2008

New Zealand's relaxed lifestyle is the leading reason people come here to live, according to new statistics.

Statistics New Zealand's longitudinal immigration survey put lifestyle (44 per cent) at the top of the list of reasons people want to live here.

The climate or clean and green environment came in second at 40 per cent, with a desire to provide a better future for children following at 39 per cent.

The survey showed 93 per cent of permanent migrants indicated they were satisfied or very satisfied with life in New Zealand, while almost the same amount said they planned to stay for three years or more.

Statistics showed 95 per cent of skilled migrants were in the labour force and another 2 per cent were seeking work.

More here .

[Taffy]

What were the other 3% doing then?

[ebianca]

Good question Taffy- maybe they were waiting for Telecom

[molly]

These are probably the ones that got in with the "20 Mio scheme - bring money, get PR" and don't need to work. They buy one/two/three hills in Nelson, build a biiiiiig house and live happily ever after.

I was one of the lucky people who had the privilege to participate in this study (here in NZ you are not asked if you like to, no, you have to), which was an absolute nonsense. Over 4 years I was visited regularly and asked always the same multiple choice questions. Most of the times the nice man visiting me, could not really speak English and I ended up sitting in front of his computer and completing the questionnaire by myself, whilst he was looking out of our windows, admiring the view and sipping tea. One of the questions was, why we like living here in NZ. Climate and green/clean environment were in the same answer. I mean, the climate is certainly nicer than it is in Switzerland, but green and clean is this country not really - quite the contrary! NZ is just lucky that they only have 4 Mio people, otherwise everything would collapse - electricity, waste management, transportation .....