The Canterbury earthquakes have provided opportunities for the construction industry in Greater Christchurch to revive through the rebuilding efforts. This has attracted many migrant workers to the region. The main objective of this study is to examine how this influx of migrants has affected the labour market outcomes in the Greater Christchurch construction industry in terms of demographic composition and occupational structure. Replicating the discrete dependent variable regression methods used in the study by Sisk and Bankston III (2014), this study also aimed to test if their findings of a significant increase in one main migrant group in the New Orleans construction industry occurred in Greater Christchurch.
Customised data from New Zealand Census of Populations and Dwellings conducted in 2006 and 2013 were used to represent the pre- and post-earthquake periods. This study found that the labour market outcomes in the Greater Christchurch construction industry post-earthquake were both similar to and different from the post-storm labour market in New Orleans. Similar to New Orleans, the Canterbury earthquakes provided opportunities for migrant workers to enter the construction industry in Greater Christchurch. The increased presence of migrant workers in the Greater Christchurch construction industry did not displace the participation of locals in the construction industry. In fact, the earthquakes increased the likelihood of both the locals and migrant workers being employed in construction. Locals in Greater Christchurch and New Orleans have maintained their comparative advantage over foreign-born workers in the construction industry.
On the other hand, changes in Greater Christchurch were different from New Orleans because, while the presence of local workers in the construction industry in New Orleans was relatively stable, the number of local workers in Greater Christchurch increased considerably. In addition, while hurricane Katrina caused an influx of mainly one migrant group to the industry, the Canterbury earthquakes attracted more diverse migrant workers to Greater Christchurch. The earthquakes have also accelerated the existing migration patterns in Greater Christchurch with an increasing trend of Asian migrants.
The earthquakes resulted in a significant increase in the likelihood of construction workers participating in the lowest occupational level. However, overall, job growth in the Greater Christchurch construction industry post-earthquakes was more balanced across the occupational levels than in New Orleans, where job growth was heavily concentrated at the bottom end of the wage structure and dominated by Latinos after Hurricane Katrina. Migrants in Greater Christchurch participated in higher occupational levels than migrants in New Orleans. The earthquakes resulted in few significant changes to the distribution of locals and migrants at the various occupational levels in the Greater Christchurch construction industry. Locals in Greater Christchurch still dominated the industry.
The aggregated education levels of locals and migrant workers have improved post-earthquakes. Different from the Latino workers in New Orleans, migrant workers in Greater Christchurch were generally better educated than local workers. This could have provided them with the opportunity to participate in higher occupational levels compared with the Latino workers in New Orleans.
Overall, the rebuild provided opportunities for migrant workers to enter the construction industry in Greater Christchurch, but did not affect the comparative advantage of the locals. Compared with New Orleans, the migrant workers in the Greater Christchurch construction industry are more diverse, more educated and participated in higher occupational levels than migrants assisting in the New Orleans rebuild. The immigration policies of New Zealand to give priority to high-skilled migrants could have played an important role in differentiating the participation of locals and migrants in the Greater Christchurch construction industry to that in New Orleans. Future research to continue monitoring the impact of the influx of foreign workers on the labour market outcomes in the construction industry and on the overall population shift in Greater Christchurch is important due to the high potential for the workers to permanently settle in the area (Canterbury Development Corporation, 2016c; Donato et al., 2007). It is expected that labour demand will reach a peak by the end of 2016 but the rebuild work will continue beyond 2020 (Canterbury Development Corporation, 2016a; Ministry of Business‚ Innovation and
Employment, 2014), suggesting that the demographic of the labour market will continue to change during and after the rebuilding boom. Different phases in the rebuilding process will have different implications for the labour market, such as changes in number of workers needed and skill requirements (Donato et al., 2007). Hence, continuous monitoring which addresses the limitation of this study is needed.
Changes in worker demographics will also pose challenges to the future planning for the construction industry, such as worker upskilling and retention, and for social issues arising from cultural and language differences (Construction Sector Leaders Group, 2013). Demographic changes resulting from immigration will have socioeconomic implications such as changes in the resilience of society towards disasters (Donner & Rodríguez, 2008), pressure on housing and challenges in urban planning due to higher diversity (Friesen, 2016). Migration in Greater Christchurch is mainly influenced by migration in the construction industry. Hence, future research on the impacts of the construction migrants in Greater Christchurch should be explored. Although this study is limited to only Greater Christchurch and the construction industry, the findings contribute to the existing literature on the impacts of disaster and implications of migrants on local labour market outcomes, and changes in population demographics in Greater Christchurch. This study also provides findings comparing impacts of disasters on the labour markets in two regions, different in their pre-disaster economic situations, and institutional and immigration structures. Lastly, the case in the construction industry in Greater Christchurch post- disaster supports other research showing that immigration not only does not negatively affect wages and employment of local workers, but benefits the host country by boosting the economy, overcoming labour shortages and building diverse communities (Hodgson & Poot, 2011; Maré & Stillman, 2009; Ministry of Business‚ Innovation and Employment, 2015a).
Appendix A
Demographics of construction workers in Greater Christchurch in 2006 and 2013 by ethnic group, highest
education qualification attained and birthplace
Notes: *High education (High Edu) includes overseas secondary school qualification NZ-born= New Zealand-born
Ethnic group includes all people who stated each ethnic group, whether as their only ethnic group or as one of several. Where a person reported more than one ethnic group, they were counted in each applicable group.
2006 (persons) % to each ethnic group 2013 (persons) % to each ethnic group change in % (2006-2013) 2006 (persons) % to each ethnic group 2013 (persons) % to each ethnic group change in % (2006-2013) 2006 (persons) % to each ethnic group 2013 (persons) % to each ethnic group change in % (2006-2013) Low Edu 7,800 48.8 11,454 44.6 46.8 7,293 52.4 10,524 49.8 44.3 507 24.5 930 20.3 83.4 High Edu* 8,190 51.2 14,250 55.4 74.0 6,624 47.6 10,590 50.2 59.9 1,566 75.5 3,660 79.7 133.7 15,990 25,704 60.8 13,917 21,114 51.7 2,073 4,590 121.4 Low Edu 5,844 48.6 9,369 43.6 60.3 5,427 52.8 8,658 48.4 59.5 417 24.0 711 19.8 70.5 High Edu 6,177 51.4 12,108 56.4 96.0 4,857 47.2 9,237 51.6 90.2 1,320 76.0 2,871 80.2 117.5 12,021 21,477 78.7 10,284 17,895 74.0 1,737 3,582 106.2 Low Edu 732 65.2 1,383 61.3 88.9 729 65.7 1,359 61.3 86.4 3 25.0 24 61.5 700.0 High Edu 390 34.8 873 38.7 123.8 381 34.3 858 38.7 125.2 9 75.0 15 38.5 66.7 1,122 2,256 101.1 1,110 2,217 99.7 12 39 225.0 Low Edu 51 27.4 117 17.4 129.4 27 50.0 33 40.7 22.2 24 18.2 84 14.2 250.0 High Edu 135 72.6 555 82.6 311.1 27 50.0 48 59.3 77.8 108 81.8 507 85.8 369.4 186 672 261.3 54 81 50.0 132 591 347.7 Low Edu 9 15.8 24 12.3 166.7 6 66.7 3 16.7 -50.0 6 12.5 21 11.9 250.0 High Edu 48 84.2 171 87.7 256.3 3 33.3 15 83.3 400.0 42 87.5 156 88.1 271.4 57 195 242.1 9 18 100.0 48 177 268.8 Low Edu 123 62.1 306 58.6 148.8 93 64.6 219 63.5 135.5 30 55.6 87 49.2 190.0 High Edu 75 37.9 216 41.4 188.0 51 35.4 126 36.5 147.1 24 44.4 90 50.8 275.0 198 522 163.6 144 345 139.6 54 177 227.8 Low Edu 1,038 43.1 255 43.8 -75.4 1,011 43.7 252 45.2 -75.1 27 30.0 3 12.5 -88.9 High Edu 1,368 56.9 327 56.2 -76.1 1,305 56.3 306 54.8 -76.6 63 70.0 21 87.5 -66.7 2,406 582 -75.8 2,316 558 -75.9 90 24 -73.3 TOTAL WORKERS Variable
Total NZ-born Foreign-born
Total Total Others European Total European Māori Total Māori Asian Total Asian MELAA Total MELAA Pacific Peoples Total Pacific Other Ethnicity
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