As far as I know Labour supports a higher refugee resettlement intake, while generally also supporting stricter limits to economic migration, while National is the other way round. I would not be surprised if the fact that New Zealand is also one of the few places that allows all foreign nationals with permanent residence full voting rights, and the Chinese vote being a very Important Constituency in favour of the Nationals, have something to do with that.
I also wonder whether this is why not just Immigration, but also Opinions on China are inverse in New Zealand, as opposed to places like Canada, Aus, or the US. I think Labour in NZ tends to be a little bit more critical towards China, banning foreign donations and Huawei (which the national party leader
criticized), while National (or at least Bridges himself) has been very,
very pro-china and they also have an MP (Jian Yang) who
worked with Chinese Spies. While Chinese-origin Voters are also an Important voting bloc for the Centre-right in Canada and Australia, the Chinese Community in NZ tends to be more pro-PRC than their Counterparts in US, Canada and Aus.
