The primary objective of the Longitudinal Immigration Survey: New Zealand (LisNZ) is to provide comprehensive data about the settlement experiences of migrants in their first three years in New Zealand. Understanding the key factors contributing to positive social and economic outcomes for migrants will be used to inform the development of effective immigration policy and settlement services.
This report describes the Longitudinal Immigration Survey: New Zealand (LisNZ) and summarises the findings of the first wave of data (six months post residence), providing a comprehensive overview of early migrant experiences. This report is the first in a series of Department of Labour reports from the LisNZ research programme. The LisNZ project will result in a series of information releases over the next few years.
The LisNZ project grew from concerns in the early to mid-1990s about the lack of information available to assist in facilitating positive settlement for migrants, and the need for a detailed assessment of the impact of immigration on New Zealand.
International immigration research has demonstrated that one of the most effective ways to obtain policy relevant and timely information on immigration and settlement is through longitudinal studies. Longitudinal studies are used to collect information from a sample of migrants on several occasions, thus capturing an understanding of the complete dynamics of the migration and settlement processes. Governments in Australia and Canada initiated such studies on immigration and settlement in the 1990s, and these surveys have been instrumental in the development of the LisNZ.
In 1997/98, the Department of Labour proposed that a comprehensive evidence base involving a longitudinal immigration survey was required if it was to robustly track migrant outcomes and develop informed immigration policy.
Early work on the New Zealand survey focused on identifying the options for longitudinal research and examining the feasibility of those options. In June 1999, the Government approved the LisNZ, and Statistics New Zealand subsequently became the Department of Labour’s partner in developing and undertaking the survey. A pilot survey was conducted in 2001 and 2002, with its findings published in 2004. The main purpose of the pilot survey was to test the survey methodology and questionnaire in the field in preparation for the main survey. This pilot study also allowed for a test of the electronic questionnaire and survey methodology, including ways to establish and maintain contact with those migrants taking part in the survey.
Methodology
Interviews
The whole LisNZ project will involve interviews with the same group of migrants at three ‘waves’ – six months (wave 1), 18 months (wave 2), and 36 months (wave 3) after they have taken up permanent residence in New Zealand. This report summarises the findings for wave 1. The number of interviewed respondents totalled 7,137. This corresponds to a 66 percent response rate.
The survey sample was selected from migrants aged 16 years and over who were approved for permanent residence in New Zealand from 1 November 2004 to 31 October 2005. The wave 1 interviews were conducted between 1 May 2005 and 30 April 2007. The wave 2 interviews were conducted from June 2006 to March 2008, and the wave 3 interviews will be completed in November 2009. The full survey aims to achieve about 5,000 completed interviews at wave 3, allowing for non-response and attrition. The survey included migrants arriving from offshore for residence and migrants who changed from a temporary permit to permanent residence onshore. The migrants were interviewed face to face using an electronic questionnaire, which the interviewer administered on a laptop computer. Bilingual interviewers conducted the interviews in seven designated survey languages (English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Samoan, Korean, Hindi, and Punjabi)
Target population
The target population for LisNZ included all migrants (excluding refugees) aged 16 years and over who were approved for permanent residence in New Zealand. The population included those who were approved for residence offshore as well as those approved onshore. Migrants were sampled at the time they were granted residence. Migrants who are approved offshore have 12 months from the date of their residence approval to arrive in New Zealand and take up residence.
Specifically, the survey includes all people granted residence through the:
- Skilled categories (referred to in the tables and figures under the categories Skilled principal and Skilled secondary)
- Business categories (referred to in the tables and figures under the Business category)
- Family categories (referred to in the tables and figures under the categories Family Partner and Family Parent)
- Pacific Access Category and Samoan Quota (referred to in the tables and figures under the Pacific category)
- various miscellaneous policies within the Family Sponsored and International/Humanitarian Streams (referred to in the tables and figures under the category Other).
Appendix A describes how the immigration approval categories have been grouped to form the analysis groups used throughout this report. (Other key terms are explained in Appendix B.)
The population included principal applicants and secondary applicants from the approved application.6 The population excluded temporary visitors and people from Australia, Niue, the Cook Islands, and Tokelau. The sample frame was constructed from Immigration New Zealand’s Application Management System. The design for the main survey is a stratified random sample using strata based on the three variables:
- immigration category
- region of origin
- type of application (offshore/onshore).