Australia is currently receiving a large inflow of New Zealanders.
New Zealand citizens are permitted to migrate to Australia using the Special Category visa (subclass 444), which allows them to live, work, and study there without needing to apply for a visa before arrival.
New Zealand citizens with a valid New Zealand passport are automatically granted a Special Category visa upon entering Australia.
According to the Department of Home Affairs, there were a record 709,400 Special Category visas on issue at the end of 2025:
As of July 1, 2023, New Zealand citizens who have lived in Australia for at least four years have been permitted to apply directly for Australian citizenship without first obtaining permanent residency.
Following these rule changes, applications for Australian citizenship surged by 462%, with 92,000 New Zealand Special Category Visa (SCV) holders applying between mid‑2023 and mid‑2025:
The SMH article revealed that 48% of the 92,000 applicants were not born in New Zealand, but rather in third-party countries.
Meanwhile, according to Stats NZ, more than 40,000 citizens left New Zealand in 2025, with around 30,000 of those landing in Australia.
Last week, Stats NZ reported that New Zealand’s unemployment rate rose to 5.4% in the December quarter, its highest level in a decade.
New Zealand’s underutilisation rate—i.e., unemployment and underemployment combined—also remained at a post-pandemic high of 13.0% in the December quarter:
Chart by Justin Fabo from Antipodean Macro
On this side of the pond, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reported that Australia’s unemployment rate declined to a seven-month low of 4.1% in December, with the underutilisation rate also declining to 9.8%, its lowest level since April 2023.
The gap between Australia’s and New Zealand’s unemployment rates is now tracking at its highest level (1.3%) since December 2010:
Migration from New Zealand to Australia is closely linked to the disparity in unemployment rates between the two nations, as Alex Joiner from IFM Investors shows below:
Therefore, the superior Australian labour market, combined with easier access to Australian citizenship, is likely to result in even larger numbers of Kiwis moving across the pond.
These inward migration inflows from New Zealand will also make it harder for the Albanese government to meet its immigration forecasts.
