This release presents results of the first wave of the Longitudinal Immigration Survey: New Zealand (LisNZ). The LisNZ is a longitudinal survey designed to trace the pathways of migrants and to produce a detailed, ongoing information base of their experiences and settlement outcomes. Migrants are interviewed at 6, 18 and 36 months after they have taken up permanent residence in New Zealand.
This release highlights results at six months (wave 1) after migrants took up permanent residence in New Zealand. It does not cover all of the aspects included in the LisNZ survey but illustrates only the types of analysis possible. A more detailed descriptive report from wave 1 of the LisNZ will be published by the Department of Labour at a later date.
Along with a description of the immigration approval categories used in this Hot Off The Press and some basic demographic characteristics, this release also focuses on the skills and resources migrants bring to New Zealand, their experiences and settlement intentions, their economic contribution and labour market activity, and finally, their social integration and settlement outcomes.
The target population for the LisNZ consists of all migrants (excluding refugees). The number of interviewed respondents (both onshore and offshore applicants) for wave 1 totalled 7,137. 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 LisNZ is a partnership between Statistics New Zealand and the Department of Labour.
Immigration approval category and type of application
People who wish to migrate permanently to New Zealand can apply for permanent residence through one of several categories. For purposes of analysis some of these categories have been combined according to their specific characteristics.
One application can include more than one migrant. The person who makes the application is called the principal applicant and other people included in the same application are called secondary applicants. Secondary applicants might include a partner and child(ren). For this release, the principal and secondary skilled migrant applicants are mentioned separately because of their high numbers and unique characteristics. (For more information on application categories refer to the technical notes of this release.)
Of all migrants in the sample, the largest group (57.9 percent) was approved through the different categories for skilled migrants. Principal applicants made up 34.5 percent and secondary applicants 23.4 percent.
Family partner migrants were the second largest group (19.4 percent), followed by family parent migrants (6.4 percent). Sixteen percent of remaining migrants in the sample were approved through other categories: business (6.0 percent), Pacific (4.5 percent), and 'other' (5.9 percent) migrants. The 'other' migrant category consists primarily of migrants approved through the Family Sibling and Family Adult Child immigration approval categories, as well as a small number approved under various categories in the International/Humanitarian Residence stream.
Demographic characteristics
This section describes some of the demographic and immigration related characteristics based on the migrants included in wave 1 of the LisNZ survey.
Region of origin and location of residence approval
The largest proportion of migrants were from the UK/Irish Republic (32.2 percent) followed by North Asia (18.1 percent), and the Pacific (12.1 percent). Refer to the technical notes of this release for more detailed regional definitions. Just over a quarter of the migrants were approved for residence while they were offshore (28.4 percent), with the remainder already in New Zealand on temporary permits at the time of residence approval.
Age and sex
Most migrants were under 45 years of age, with the 25- to 34-year age group accounting for 36.0 percent of all migrants and the 35- to 44-year age group making up 30.1 percent. Overall, there were slightly more female than male migrants (51.6 percent compared with 48.4 percent). However, this result varied by immigration approval category. While the proportion of females was higher for skilled secondary (69.7 percent) and family partner (63.5 percent) migrants, skilled principal migrants were more likely to be male (66.5 percent).
The age by sex breakdown for all migrants was very similar for males and females. The most noticeable difference across immigration approval categories was the higher proportion of male skilled secondary migrants in the 16- to 24-year age group (28.3 percent) compared with 11.7 percent for females. However, female skilled secondary migrants in the 35- to 44-year age group made up a larger proportion of this group (44.9 of females compared with 27.1 percent of males).
Skills and resources
This section describes the skills and resources of migrants, including their English language ability, qualification level, field of study, and work experience.
English language ability
Most migrants had a high level of English language ability (86.5 percent), either reporting their English language skills as good or very good (27.2 percent) or as a language they speak best (59.3 percent).
Consistent with immigration policy requirements, the highest proportion of migrants who reported they spoke English best were approved through the skilled categories (70.0 percent of skilled principal and 71.4 percent of skilled secondary migrants). About half of family partner migrants (53.1 percent) also reported they spoke English best, while 48.8 percent of Pacific migrants rated their English language ability as either good or very good. Family parent (50.7 percent) and business (41.6 percent) migrants were the most likely to rate their English ability as moderate to poor.
Qualification level
Sixty-seven percent (67.0 percent) of all migrants aged 16 years and older held a post-school qualification, with nearly half of the total (47.4 percent) holding an advanced vocational or university degree.
Most skilled principal migrants held some form of post-school qualification (92.1 percent). Over 60 percent of skilled secondary (62.5 percent) and family partner (66.0 percent) migrants held a post-school qualification. This compared with 38.4 percent of business migrants, 35.2 percent of family parent migrants, and 27.8 percent of the Pacific migrants.
The majority of skilled principal migrants (68.7 percent) held an advanced vocational or university degree, as did 46.9 percent of the family partner and 42.4 percent of skilled secondary migrants. This compared with 21.9 percent of business migrants, and 25.7 of family parent migrants.
Field of study
Migrants with post-school studies held qualifications in a range of different fields. Nearly a quarter (23.8 percent) had qualifications in the field of management and commerce. Other common fields of study included engineering and related technologies (14.0 percent), society and culture (12.6 percent), and health (11.1 percent).
Work experience before residence approval
Over a quarter (27.7 percent) of all migrants reported 10 to 19 years of paid work experience before residence approval while 25.5 percent reported 20 years or more. Around one-third of skilled principal (34.9 percent) and skilled secondary (31.2 percent) migrants reported having 10 to 19 years of paid work experience, as did a quarter of family partner (24.8 percent) and Pacific (24.7 percent) migrants. The highest proportion of migrants who reported they had work experience of 20 years or more were found within business (33.8 percent) and family parent (66.5 percent) migrant groups. Nearly 10 percent (9.5) of all migrants had never been in paid employment.
Experiences and settlement intentions
This section describes migrants’ previous experience in New Zealand, their reasons for applying for permanent residence in New Zealand, and the length of time they intend to stay in the country.
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Previous experience in New Zealand
Most migrants had spent some time in New Zealand prior to gaining permanent residence (85.7 percent). Over half (52.5 percent) of all migrants had spent at least 12 months in New Zealand prior to their permanent residence uptake. Pacific migrants were the least likely to have spent time in New Zealand before taking up permanent residence (64.8 percent), while business migrants were the most likely (94.5 percent) to have spent time here, with 77.6 percent of them having spent more than two years in the country.
Over half (54.6 percent) of all migrants had been employed in New Zealand before. Skilled principal migrants were the most likely to have worked in New Zealand prior to gaining permanent residence (73.6 percent).
Reasons for choosing New Zealand
Migrants were asked to choose the main reasons they applied for permanent residence in New Zealand. The three most common reasons they reported were the relaxed pace of life or lifestyle (44.1 percent), the climate or clean, green environment (39.6 percent), and to provide a better future for their children (39.0 percent).
Skilled migrants were the most likely to report on the relaxed pace of life or lifestyle as a main reason for choosing New Zealand (this was 63.3 percent for the skilled principal and 54.8 percent for the skilled secondary migrants). Half of skilled principal (52.8 percent) and business (49.3 percent) migrants saw the climate (or the clean, green environment) as a main reason for them to come. Pacific migrants were the most likely to consider their coming to New Zealand as an opportunity to provide a better future for their children (58.6 percent). A similar proportion of Pacific migrants (59.3 percent) reported employment opportunities as a main reason.
Migrants’ settlement intentions
Most migrants (83.5 percent) planned to live in New Zealand full time for five years or more at the time of residence approval; this proportion was particularly high for Pacific migrants (93.8 percent). Business migrants were the most likely to split their time between New Zealand and another country (10.5 percent).
At the time of interview, 92.2 percent of migrants planned to live in New Zealand (either all of the time or part of the time) for three years or more. Family parent migrants were the least likely to know how many years they intended to live in New Zealand (10.4 percent did not know).
Labour market activity
This section examines migrants’ labour market activity by a number of factors likely to influence these outcomes. Further analysis is needed to understand which factors impacted most on labour market outcomes. This section also includes factors that helped migrants find work, the difficulties they experienced when searching for work, their occupations in the country they lived in previously, and their occupations in New Zealand at the time of interview.
Migrants’ labour market activity is defined as being employed, not employed but seeking work, or not in the labour force (for example, studying, caring for dependants, or retired). Refer to the technical notes for details on the labour market activity definitions used in this release.
Immigration approval category
Overall, 70.4 percent of migrants aged 16 years and over were employed at the time of the interview. The employment rate was highest for skilled principal migrants (93.1 percent), followed by Pacific (70.0 percent), family partner (68.0 percent), and skilled secondary (60.6 percent) migrants. Over half (55.3 percent) of business migrants were employed (75.0 percent of principal business migrants were employed).
Just over four percent (4.4 percent) of migrants in the labour force were seeking work at the time of the interview. The seeking-work rate ranged from 1.9 percent for skilled principal migrants to 11.1 percent for 'other' migrant categories (for this section, this group includes family parent migrants).
Age and sex
Around three quarters of migrants in the labour force (73.9 percent) were aged 25 to 44 years. The employment rate was highest for the 25- to 34-year age group (79.9 percent). As expected, migrants aged 16 to 24 years (52.7 percent) and 55 years and over (22.1 percent) were generally the least likely to be employed. However, in the case of skilled principal migrants, the employment rate was very high for all age groups, ranging from 81.8 percent for those aged 55 years and over to 94.3 percent for those aged 35 to 44 years.
Overall, female migrants had a lower employment rate (61.4 percent) than their male counterparts (80.0 percent), and a larger proportion of female migrants were out of the labour force (34.9 percent of females compared with 17.3 percent of males). There were no major differences in the seeking-work rates for males (3.4 percent of the labour force) and females (5.8 percent).
Employment rates were highest for both male (94.5 percent) and female (90.5 percent) skilled principal migrants. The most noteworthy differences between male and female employment rates were seen among Pacific and family partner migrants. For both categories, the male employment rate was more than 25 percentage points higher than the corresponding rate for females (81.8 percent of males and 54.8 percent of females for Pacific category, and 84.8 percent of males and 58.2 percent of females for family partner migrants).
English language ability
Employment rates were highest for migrants reporting English as a language they spoke best (76.9 percent), followed by those who rated their English language ability as good or very good (69.1 percent). Migrants who rated their language ability as moderate to poor had the lowest employment rate (45.2 percent).
Skilled principal migrants who reported English as a language they spoke best had the highest employment rate (95.5 percent) and the lowest seeking-work rate (1.3 percent). Family partner migrants who reported they spoke English best had higher employment rates (78.0 percent) and lower seeking-work rates (2.7 percent) than skilled secondary migrants (61.4 percent and 7.7 percent, respectively).
Previous work experience in New Zealand
Having previous New Zealand work experience (prior to residence approval) was associated with higher employment rates and lower job-seeking rates for all immigration approval categories. Employment rates for migrants who had spent time in New Zealand prior to residence but were not employed were similar to those who had never been to New Zealand. Overall however, not having been to New Zealand before residence approval was associated with higher seeking-work rates (12.7 percent), particularly for skilled secondary migrants (23.6 percent).
Qualification level
The employment rate for migrants with post-school qualifications was 77.9 percent compared with 55.4 percent for those with a school qualification. The seeking-work rate was lower for migrants with post-school qualifications (3.8 percent) compared with those who had school qualifications (5.6 percent).
The employment rates of skilled principal migrants with school or post-school qualifications were similar (94.4 percent and 93.1 percent, respectively). For other migrants, having post-school qualifications was associated with higher employment rates.
Finding work in New Zealand
Main difficulties with finding employment
Migrants who were employed and/or had tried to find employment in the six months prior to the interview were asked whether they had encountered difficulties with finding employment. Overall, 61.6 percent reported they experienced no difficulties with finding employment.
Of those who reported they had difficulties with finding employment, the most common problem they faced related to their lack of New Zealand work experience (21.5 percent). Other problems included: skills/experience were not accepted by New Zealand employers (7.2 percent); the lack of suitable work equivalent to skills/experience (6.8 percent); difficulties with the English language (6.8 percent); and their feeling discriminated against for being a migrant (6.5 percent).
Skilled secondary and family partner migrants reported their lack of New Zealand work experience as the most common factor (26.4 percent and 25.1 percent, respectively), followed by their skills/experience not recognised by employers (9.3 percent and 10.2 percent, respectively). Overall, the largest group that reported having difficulties with the English language were business (23.6 percent) migrants.
Main factors that helped migrants find employment
Migrants who had worked in New Zealand at some time since their residence approval or since their first arrival in New Zealand were asked about the main factors that helped them find work. The majority reported a combination of two or more factors. Overall, the main factor was work experience and qualifications (54.9 percent), which was also the most common reason reported by skilled principal (70.5 percent), skilled secondary (50.5 percent), family partner (43.8 percent) and business (35.0 percent) migrants.
Other important factors reported were looking at job advertisements (35.2 percent), having good English language skills (33.2 percent), having overseas qualifications recognised (21.7 percent), and making contacts through friends and family (20.9 percent).
The influences of these factors varied by immigration approval category. Over a third of skilled principal migrants (35.7 percent) reported having their overseas qualifications officially recognised in New Zealand as instrumental to finding work. Skilled secondary migrants tended to report looking at job advertisements as an important source of help (42.8 percent), as did family partner (38.1 percent) migrants. Pacific migrants (49.2 percent), as well as family partner (28.5 percent), and business (23.1 percent) migrants reported their contacts through friends and family to be a significant source of help in finding work.
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Occupation
Occupation in previous country
Migrants were asked about their occupation in the last country they had lived in for 12 months or more (besides New Zealand). Responses were recorded for those who had lived in that country within the two years prior to residence approval in New Zealand (48.2 percent of all migrants). Of these, 39.7 percent were previously employed as professionals, 16.2 percent worked as managers, 12.4 percent as clerical and administrative workers, and 11.9 percent as technicians or trades workers.
Skilled principal migrants were the most likely to have worked as professionals (53.7 percent), followed by family partner (34.3 percent), and skilled secondary (30.3 percent) migrants. Business migrants were most likely to have been managers (47.8 percent) in the previous country they had lived in, while Pacific migrants made up the largest proportion of technical or trades workers (19.3 percent). Skilled secondary (18.9 percent) and family partner (19 percent) migrants made up a large proportion of the clerical and administrative workers.
Occupation at the time of interview
At the time of interview, 29.7 percent of employed migrants were working as professionals, followed by 15.5 percent as managers, and 14.7 percent as technicians and trades workers. The majority (80.9 percent) of employed skilled principal migrants were working in these three occupational groups, many of them as professionals (46.2 percent). About 20 percent of skilled secondary (19.9 percent) and family partner (19.1 percent) migrants were working as professionals at the time of interview. Business migrants were mainly employed as managers (62.5 percent), while Pacific migrants were more likely to be employed as labourers (34.5 percent).
Social integration and settlement
This section describes migrants’ initial settlement needs in New Zealand, what they like and dislike about New Zealand, their level of satisfaction and their perceptions of how they and their family have settled.
Types of help migrants needed
At the time of interview, 48.2 percent of migrants said they had needed some help, advice or information with at least one aspect of life in New Zealand. Family parent migrants were less likely than other categories to need help (24.8 percent). Overall, the most common type of assistance needed was with getting a driver’s licence (22.5 percent), particularly for skilled principal (26.9 percent) and skilled secondary (24.2 percent) migrants. Also reported were help with the tax system (14.5 percent), looking for work (14.2 percent) and legal matters (12.7 percent).
Skilled principal migrants were more likely to need help with the tax system (19.9 percent), and information about the recognition of their qualifications (10.7 percent), but were less likely to need help with learning English (2.6 percent). Compared with other migrants, skilled secondary migrants reported they needed more help with education and training (15.6 percent), while Pacific migrants were more likely to need help looking for work (19.1 percent).
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Aspects liked and disliked most about New Zealand
Migrants were asked about the aspects they liked and disliked most about New Zealand. Overall, migrants liked New Zealand’s climate and natural beauty most (76.7 percent), followed by its friendly people or relaxed pace of life (62.9 percent), and the ability to achieve one’s desired lifestyle in New Zealand (61.6 percent). While these three aspects were preferred by skilled (principal and secondary) and family partner migrants, other migrants’ preferences differed somewhat based on their immigration approval category. Job opportunities (66.0 percent), the educational system and educational opportunities (66.0 percent) were preferred most by Pacific migrants. Not surprisingly, having family in New Zealand was a positive aspect for family parent migrants (71.3 percent).
Migrants reported that the aspects they disliked most about New Zealand were the high tax rates or difficulties understanding the tax system (35.8 percent), followed by the distance of New Zealand from home or family (33.6 percent), and the cost of health services (27.9 percent). Pacific (39.5 percent) and family parent (34.8 percent) migrants had the highest tendency to report there was nothing they disliked about New Zealand.
Migrants’ settlement ratings for themselves, their partners and their children
Respondents were asked to provide a rating of how settled they were in New Zealand, as well as how settled their spouse or partner and their child(ren) were. Most migrants reported they were either settled or very settled in New Zealand (87.3 percent), while 2.4 percent reported they were unsettled or very unsettled. Of all respondents, the highest proportion of those who reported themselves as settled or very settled were Pacific (92.0 percent) migrants. Pacific migrants also reported their children to be the most settled with 99.4 percent rating their children as settled or very settled.
The majority of migrants (84.2 percent) also reported that their spouse or partner felt settled or very settled. This compared with 5.6 percent of those who reported their spouse or partner to be unsettled or very unsettled. Migrants’ rating of their children’s settlement in New Zealand was very high, with 94.0 percent reporting that their children were settled or very settled, and 1.2 percent reporting them to be unsettled or very unsettled.
Migrants’ satisfaction with their child(ren)’s school in New Zealand
Respondents who had children attending school in New Zealand were asked how satisfied they were with their child(ren)’s school, and how settled they thought their child(ren) were at school. Satisfaction ratings were high, with 90.8 percent of parents reporting that they were satisfied or very satisfied with their child(ren)’s school, while 2.2 percent reported dissatisfaction. Similarly, 93.5 percent of migrants reported their children to be either settled or very settled at school, while 1.7 percent reported them to be unsettled or very unsettled.
Satisfaction with life in New Zealand
Migrants from all approval categories expressed a high degree of satisfaction with life in New Zealand. Overall, 92.5 percent of migrants reported that they were either satisfied or very satisfied with life in New Zealand, while a very small proportion reported being dissatisfied or very dissatisfied (1.1 percent). Pacific migrants reported the highest level of satisfaction (95.7 percent reported being satisfied or very satisfied), while business migrants were least likely to report being satisfied or very satisfied (85.8 percent).
For technical information contact:
Kobus Boshoff, LisNZ Project Manager
Cécile Thoreau, Statistical Analyst
Wellington 04 931 4600
Email: LisNZ@stats.govt.nz
Next release...
Future results will be published as they become available.