Migration and Mobility in post-COVID World : Demographic Challenges

Emeritus Distinguished Professor Paul Spoonley is a highly respected Sociologist who recently retired from Massey University.  Paul undertook his education in New Zealand and England enabling him to  become a specialist on how social change and demography impacts on political policy and decision making.

He has led numerous externally funded research programmes, written or edited twenty-eight books and is a regular commentator in the media. He has recently been appointed to a part-time position by the Police Commissioner and he is working with Sir Peter Gluckman at a new research centre, Koi Tu, The Centre for Informed Futures.

He has advocated for a population policy to manage immigration to meet labour and skill demands and argued that the country should have set a 1% target of net migration each year. Recently his work on racism, in particular "right wing extremism”, immigration and ethnicity has been widely discussed in the wake of the Christchurch mosque attacks (2019) and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Paul is a fellow of the Royal Society of NZ, and the recipient of numerous awards including:

- Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of California Berkeley

- the Royal Society of NZ Science and Technology medal; and

- is a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Germany