Britons emigrating to New Zealand find it like home

Experts have hypnotised that this popularity for the British to emigrate to New Zealand and settle in places like Christchurch can be due in part to the similarity that Christchurch has with British towns like Bournemouth or Cambridge.

Christchurch, for example, has a medieval cathedral in a square, streets named for Anglican dioceses, and squares named for Anglican reformers.

A look at the 2006 census data on New Zealand electorates shows that the top three electorates for British migrants who were in New Zealand less than five years in 2006 were the sprawling beach-side suburbs north of Auckland: Rodney, East Coast Bays, North Shore.

There are three Christchurch electorates in the top 10, Port Hills, Selwyn, Waimakariri, and in each of these three electorates Britons made up the largest migrant group.

The trend is for the British to live away from the centre of the town, in the hills, the beaches, the semi-rural edges, and in the case of Christchurch, the kids often commute in to private schools.

The New Zealand Department of Labour's longitudinal study of migrants has found the British to be the most satisfied and, along with those from the Pacific, the most settled of all migrant groups.

The top five sources of those emigrating to New Zealand, as of July 2009, were the UK (17 per cent), China (13 per cent), South Africa (11 per cent), Fiji (8 per cent), and The Philippines (8 per cent).

The New Zealand Visa Bureau is an independent consulting company specialising in New Zealand visa and immigration services.