I saw the post yesterday and postponed replying due to the complexity of the topic. It really requires a long form article to do it justice .

Basically about 30 percent of the New Zealand population was born overseas and the government has an active programme to encourage immigration setting up offices in China and India to facilitate this

THis means NZ has become a destination of choice for many people who wouldn't be able to get into the other OECD countries. NZ Is seen by some as a transit point to Canada or Australia.

Because NZ is so liberal it is impossible to even criticize our immigration policies without being accused as a race baiter. So many young people are immigrants (or from migrant families) and they of course argue in favor of immigration. I also have a theory that having come from highly populous places (India, Phillipines, China) they find our relatively unpopulated environment unnatural and (even if it is unconscious) wish to replicate their homelands here.

The immigrants replicate their low trust societies in what was traditionally one of the most high trust societies in the world. It's impossible to talk about this.

Because the push towards multiculturalism is so recent the immigrant community is still finding its feet politically. THe real weaknesses and challenges will be felt thirty years from now as NZ's population continues to grow thorough immigration — something the business community wholeheartedly endorses. At that point any ability to create a coherent ecologically sound society will be lost.

Because we are on the outpost of empire we are deeply affected by what happens in the US and tend to replicate the trends there. We badly need our own indigenous metapolitics.