Some frustrated migrants are giving up and going home because they say new rules make it harder to work and stay in New Zealand.
In the year to April, more than 30,000 non-New Zealand citizens who had been here on a permanent or long-term basis left this country - up 23 per cent on the year before, according to Statistics NZ.
As a result, annual net migration is down 4800 from a high point a year ago.
Most were temporary migrants who arrived on student and work visas, experts believe.
Immigration policy changes introduced last year have made it harder for temporary migrants to gain residency.
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Donny Lai, 50, a former university lecturer from Hong Kong, will next week be returning home with his wife and young son after three years of struggling to secure a decent job.
Lai describes himself as a "highly qualified IT professional" ande moved here in April 2015 because he believed the education system here was better for his 9-year-old son Justin.
But after sending out hundreds of job applications, the only work he could find was as a low-paid teacher in a private training establishment.
"We still love New Zealand, but it is just simply not possible to settle here when you cannot find a proper job," Lai said.
"The job market here is also too small for highly skilled people like myself, which is quite ironic because that is what immigration gives points for under the skilled migrant category."
Lai said most employers also would not give migrant workers who did not have local work experience a chance.