As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw
New Zealand does sound pretty incredible.  A massive national park, the size of California, with only 5 million people, and very liveable and appealing cities.<p>Here&#x27;s the thing.  Would New Zealand stay that way if it pursued a policy of large scale immigration, they way the US has?  The US takes well over a million new immigrants into the country every year.  10 years of our immigration would triple the size of New Zealand.<p>I&#x27;m sure they could find takers.  Plenty of people would love to move to New Zealand.<p>I do wonder why the US, which takes over a million immigrants a year, takes so much heat for enforcing immigration policy, while New Zealand receives so much praise for being an ideal society.<p>It sounds like New Zealand may use its selectivity to allow in immigrants, but only those likely to contribute significantly to the bottom line.  In a way, their exclusivity may actually help them cherry pick the very best.  As strategy, I get it.  But again, the NYTimes has been immensely critical of deportations in the US.  Why do they give NZ a pass on this?  And if they&#x27;re going to praise New Zealand, doesn&#x27;t that mean they&#x27;re praising a very limited immigration policy?<p>I mean, how about this last quote: “It’s boom time for the next 10 years,” Mr. Drury said. The more immigrants, the better. “We’ll take a lot. We’ll take hundreds.”<p>Woah, not <i>hundreds</i>?