"Better Lives provides a comprehensive overview of immigration in New Zealand, showing how immigration is not just an economic imperative that needs to be managed, but an opportunity to enhance people's lives. This book shifts immigration debate in Aotearoa in exactly the right direction." Dr Arama Rata (Ngati Maniapoto, Taranaki, Ngaruahine), NIDEA (National Institute of Demographic and Economic Analysis), University of Waikato Migration is at historically high levels and more than a quarter of the New Zealand population was born overseas. Yet immigration remains a deeply contentious issue, with the debate more often shaped by emotion than evidence. Julie Fry and Peter Wilson have developed a new framework that broadens the scope of how we consider migration policy. Rather than just considering the effect of migration on GDP, they look at factors such as the Treaty of Waitangi. Their goal? Migration policy that acknowledges the complexity of the world we all inhabit.

Author Biography

Julie Fry is a consulting economist who divides her time between New York and a family farm near Motueka. She has worked on migration policy issues since the early 1990s, designing programmes and advising agencies including The Treasury, Te Puni Kokiri, and HM Treasury in London. Julie has Masters degrees in economics from both the University of Canterbury and Lincoln University, and she received a Nuffield Fellowship to research discrimination issues at the University of Warwick in Coventry. Peter Wilson is a Principal Economist and Head of Auckland Business at the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research. He has spent over thirty years in government, the private sector and as a consultant applying the tools of economics to help people live the lives they value and have reason to value.