That doesn’t mean the policy changes have no effect. They will lower the stock of short-term non-citizens working and studying in New Zealand. They will ease, a little, demand for housing. In some specific sectors, with lots of short-term immigrant labour, they may ease downward pressures on wages (although in general, immigrants add more to demand than to supply, and that applies to students too). But it won’t change the expected medium-term migration inflow.