Neoliberalism and the New Race Politics of Migration Policy: Changing Profiles of the Desirable Migrant in New Zealand

On the face of it, neoliberalism and race are distinct paradigms. Yet, evidence shows that, neoliberal policy profoundly influences, and is influenced by, racial politics. The present paper examines the articulation of these two ‘frames’ in the specific case of migration policies in New Zealand. Since the mid-1980s, immigration policy in New Zealand has clearly worked towards neoliberal goals of attracting skilled labour and boosting economic productivity. Equally, it has also mirrored race politics. Contrary to existing research that sees migration policy as a tool to ‘whiten the population’, this paper highlights a more complex inter-weaving between neoliberalism and race politics in New Zealand's migration policy. Focusing notionally on the construction of the ‘desirable migrant’, the analysis shows that while desirability was marked by race throughout the mid-1990s, in the new century, the interplay between race and economics has become far more complicated. In what seems to be an emerging form of new race politics, the desirable migrant is constructed as someone who shares similarities in global, consumptive ‘culture’, regardless of race.