Emigration

I've often argued that American libertarians should give up on changing America and experience more freedom today by moving to New Zealand. I doubt it'll happen: the more obnoxious the TSA becomes, the more convinced I am that there's no point at which American libertarians who talk a lot about the value of freedom would ever be willing to give up the minor conveniences of living close to relatives in a police state.

New Zealand's no utopia, and the earthquakes are a bit annoying, but New Zealand does better in providing the bundle of freedoms I value. Today's example: business freedom. While you can't even open a food cart in New York, businesses in Christchurch whose buildings have been destroyed have been reopening in all kinds of ersatz locations. A great Lyttelton coffee shop, with food service, now runs out of a house's garage and driveway. Imagine the permits and food safety processes you'd need to go through to do anything similar in North America.

For those interested in potential migration, here's Immigration New Zealand's new priority list for speedy immigration consideration. Here's the Immigration New Zealand site with the new skill category listings. Here's the full Essential Skills in Demand list; I think the new changes haven't yet been incorporated into that list. From The Press:

Pig farmers, poultry breeders and motorcycle mechanics are among the skilled workers who will be afforded an easier ride through New Zealand's immigration process from next week.

Immigration New Zealand has updated its Immediate Skill Shortage List, which aims to attract temporary foreign workers to supply skills scarce in the workforce.

Other vocations added to the list include medical technician, electronic equipment trades worker, metal machinist, foundry moulder, clinical coder and baker.

Only one occupation – optometrist – was removed from the list.

Eighteen others were removed from the ISSL but remained on the extended version of the scheme, the Long Term Skills Shortage List, which opens a door for migrant workers to apply for residency at the end of two years.

That list is still populated by engineers, oncologists, surgeons and general practitioners.

Though skill shortages in the medical professions have been much publicised in recent years, the paucity of pig-farming professionals is also high, New Zealand Pork chief executive Sam McIvor said.

"Pig farming, as with many other types of agricultural production, has evolved into a highly skilled occupation requiring technical know-how and accuracy in a host of areas, ranging from animal welfare and disease treatment and diagnosis to optimising livestock nutrition – and everything in between.

"We've welcomed farmers from around the world, particularly southern Africa, the European Union, the Philippines and other Asian countries, with the necessary skills, qualifications and attitude to work."

If it were up to me, and I were constrained against open borders, I'd open a special category for folks willing to open restaurants in underrepresented cuisines. New Zealand is great on Asian and European restaurants, but seriously lacking in Middle Eastern (other than kebab), South American, and African (other than South African) restaurants. There's one Ethiopean restaurant in the country and it's only open one day a week. I'd love to see that change.