The Changing Settlement Experience of New Migrants (2004)
Department of Immigration, Indigenous and Multicultural Affairs (DIMIA)
As part of the ‘new world’, Australia has had an active migration program ever since white settlement. Today, almost one quarter of Australian residents were born overseas, and there have been a number of years since World War 2 when migration provided over half of our population growth. Despite the significance of migration in the Australian story, it is not until recently that we have had the information that enables us to obtain a good appreciation of the experience of recent migrants in settling into their new country of residence. Nor has there been good evidence from which to assess the consequences for successful settlement of changes in migration policy and services. An important initiative by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs has produced a world class data set that enables the early settlement experience of two different cohorts of migrants to be traced in detail. Two sets of surveys have been conducted, of migrants who received their visas offshore. The first set surveyed migrants arriving in Australia from September 1993 to August 1995 (Cohort 1) and the second surveyed migrants arriving in Australia from September 1999 to August 2000 (Cohort 2). Migrants were first interviewed about six months after arrival. A second wave of interviews of the same people was conducted 12 months after the first wave.
The information collected in this Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia (LSIA) provides a unique insight into a number of important questions. These include the extent to which people who migrate under different visa categories have different outcomes; the impact of personal attributes such as English language proficiency, age, formal education and gender on economic independence and other settlement outcomes; and the role played by Australian migrant services in assisting settlement. It is also possible to investigate whether changes in the overall state of the economy and in government policy have had a substantial effect on the early integration of migrants into employment.
In this report we focus particularly on information from the second waves of both Cohort 1 and Cohort 2. We use this to describe and compare the experience of these two groups of recent migrants, and to see what changes have occurred for the second group in the twelve months since their first interview.
To access a copy of this report click on the DIMIA link below:
http://www.immi.gov.au/research/publications/
Sue Richardson
Return to Index |
