The actual impact of India FTA on immigration will be tiny

The India – NZ FTA allows 1,667 three-year temporary employment entry (TEE) visas per annum (capped at a maximum of 5,000 at any point in time).

However 1,466 of those visas are for skilled occupations already on the green list. We already issue 28,000 or so of these a year, including 4,500 a year to Indian nationals. So those 1,466 a year will be zero increase on what we are already doing. It is a floor, but a floor at one third of the level we are already at.

So that leaves 200 a year to ‘iconic’ Indian occupations. The maximum at any time would be 600. Even if they do successfully bring in family, again the maximum number of “extra” people in NZ would be around 2,000 in a country of 5 million.

On an annual basis you are taking maybe 650 more incoming migrants a year on top of the 136,000 we already have. That is a 0.5% increase.