By Zoe Dufeaux-Tobiano, Year 10
What do you know about New Zealand? Maybe that they have more sheep (around 38 million ) than humans ( around 5 million). Well, they have another problem; their economic situation. Since Covid-19 New Zealand’s economy has collapsed (-12.2 GDP). Because of that, the New Zealand government has included that their visiting visas could let people who have them also work in the country, but only for up to 90 days. One of the most prominent economic sources is tourism, in 2023 New Zealand reported 11B New Zealand dollars (around 5.7B CHF).
The government also allows people to work and legally reside in another country for a longer period than a tourist visa, it recognises that possible tourists could work and generate some income in New Zealand. By doing this, New Zealand has been hoping to attract more tourists, especially IT workers looking to work while on vacation, like people from South East Asia . This Visa is also very beneficial for the government as tourism creates around 200,00 jobs, having this Visa will lead to more jobs created and a growing economy. Basically, New Zealand ‘s economy has been a mess since Covid, and the government needs a lot to keep up.
But these visas might have a negative spillover effect as it might make New Zealand’s economy dependent on tourists, leading to an increase in New Zealand’s GDP but will also lead to a decrease in their GDP in the long term. Although the Visa is only available for 90 days one applicant might want to extend the visa to up to 9 month but might also pay a tax to stay, leading to more money being generated in the country that could be reinvested in infrastructure and/or more.
Many countries like Japan, Brazil, Taiwan and South Korea have benefited from this system as their economy has been declining since Covid. However, this can lead to over tourism especially in Japan, in April of 2024 authorities blocked the access to see Mount Fuji as there were too many tourists around that area, blocking the road. Now the government has decided to remove the net blocking the view.
For Spain, they have put in Visa in order to boost immigration, Elma Saiz said the new regulation ‘’represents a balance between extending and protecting the rights of migrants and the legal rigour and attention to Spain’s need’’. According to the prime minister of Spain (Pedro Sanchez) and the prime minister of New Zealand ( Jacinda Archrn) said that the two countries meant that 2,000 Spanish and 2,000 New Zealandese between the age of 18-30 will benefit from that scheme.
In conclusion, the effects of that visas could differ depending on the country.
Sources:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2k7xvk2vvo
