Ageing New Zealand: the growing reliance on migrant caregivers

New Zealand’s population is ageing rapidly.  It is projected that 48,200 paid caregivers will be needed by 2036 to look after a growing number of older and possibly disabled New Zealanders requiring high levels of care and support.

Although the aged-caregiver workforce has a high skilled component comprising of nurses, doctors, and other allied health professionals, it also has a lower-skilled (mostly female) component that provides the day-to-day care giving activities such as bathing, dressing and feeding the elderly.

However, it is highly unlikely that the local labour supply will be sufficient to meet the demand for carers - also, the current caregiver workforce is itself ageing.  Although New Zealand does not have a formal scheme for caregiver migration, there has been a rapid and growing reliance on migrant caregivers for the elderly over the last five years. Caregivers from parts of the Pacific in particular have formed a constant source of workers - however, in the last two years there has been a sudden rise in migrant caregivers for the elderly from the Philippines for example. The authors of this report argue that immigration of low-skill workers needs to be considered to help alleviate future pressures on the demand for paid caregivers for the elderly.

This paper looks at:

• how the care sector is made up -  who the carers are, how many there are and where are they from
• initiatives from other countries to enable low skill migration
• potential models for migration to New Zealand
  

It also highlights that sending countries have three main areas to be concerned about:

• the protection and welfare of their workers, especially those in vulnerable sectors such as care-giving and domestic services
• reaping the benefits in development through remittances and skills acquisition
• the consideration of how this affects the sending country’s own society. This includes issues around skill loss and disruption of family life. In addition to this, significant levels of highly gendered migration from small countries could affect sex ratios and this might in turn affect marriages and other aspects of society

The report then goes on to look at migration models that could be implemented in order to enable possible caregiver workers to seek work. In order for a low skill migration scheme for caregivers to be viable and successful in the longer term, a systematic approach would be needed to decide on the type of scheme that to be introduced (permanent versus temporary), and the source countries targeted appropriately.  The authors also note that Australia will also will need more care workers and that New Zealand has to remain an attractive prospect for migrant workers.

The authors argue that the following possibilities are worth exploring:

• there are some advantages of focusing on the Pacific. Migrants from some parts of the Pacific, namely Polynesia and Micronesia, might consider New Zealand over other countries due to existing family ties in New Zealand, and New Zealand has long historical links with the Pacific
• currently caregivers for the elderly do not feature on the Long Term Skill Shortage List (LTSSL). If this occupation were to be included, migrant caregivers would be allowed to work for 24 months, after which they could apply for permanent residence.
• Samoan Quota (SQ) and Pacific Access Category (PAC) residency schemes could be adapted to facilitate the a source of migrant caregivers for the elderly