ABSTRACT
This chapter is the first empirical chapter for the book, which is based on an immigration policy and statistical analysis. It firstly analyses the changing family sponsorship and older parent reunification immigration policy in New Zealand since 1987 when the government abolished the race-based immigration selection system and started a new policy that regards migration as rational economic subjects within a neoliberal regime of profit. The new immigration policy has opened the door to immigrants from a wider region, especially immigrants from Asian sources. The first focus of the chapter is to discuss the family immigration policy changes but contextualise it into the overall framework of the key transitions in the immigration policy. The second focus is a statistical analysis based on the data of resident decisions from New Zealand Immigration. The results of the analysis show (1) the significance of family immigration in New Zealand, (2) the variation of using different family immigration categories for immigration purposes in different immigrant groups, (3) the impact of immigration policy changes on family immigration, and (4) the significance and uniqueness of family immigration for Chinese from China.
