One long-term measure of a migrant’s successful settlement and contribution to the country is the extent to which they remain in the country after taking up residence.Previous research has highlighted that certain sub-groups of migrants tend to spend lengthy periods out of the country after taking up residence. However, previous research is limited, in that absence has been assessed at one point in time, rather than over the course of a migrant’s residence in New Zealand. This research extends previous studies to understand more fully the dynamics of migrants’ absenteeism and movement patterns. The purpose is to identify migrants with particular movement patterns into and out of New Zealand, and to explore the characteristics of those who spend lengthy periods out of the country.
Purpose
This research extends previous studies to understand more fully the dynamics of migrants’ absenteeism and movement patterns. The purpose is to identify migrants with particular movement patterns into and out of New Zealand, and to explore the characteristics of those who spend lengthy periods out of the country.
Methodology
The research involved a quantitative analysis of the Department of Labour’s Immigration database. Migrants included in the analysis were those with residence applications approved between January 1998 and December 2004. The analysis involved producing a client history of each migrant’s movements into and out of New Zealand from the date of final residence approval. The analysis was done using SAS algorithms to produce a number of derivative datasets and statistical tables. The statistical tables were exported into Excel and Access for analysis.
Variables that were calculated for each migrant included:
• whether they arrived to take up residence
• the number of spells of absence
• the length of each spell of absence
• the time spent absent on a year-by-year basis
• the total time spent absent
• location on a monthly basis (i.e. onshore, offshore temporarily, or offshore and not returned during the analysis period).
The second stage of the analysis involved exploring the characteristics of migrants with particular movement and absence patterns. Some comparison is provided between non-return rates for the 1998 and 1999 migrant cohorts and out-migration estimates for the usually resident New Zealand population (derived from 1996 and 2001 Census data).
There are some data limitations that are fully described in the main text. In some cases, it was necessary to assign “dummy movements” in order to create a complete movement set over the analysis period. Due to technical issues (such as migrants using more than one passport), there was a small proportion of data inconsistencies (less than 2 percent). For example, migrants may have had two subsequent arrivals or departures recorded. In such cases, an assumption was made as to whether a migrant was onshore or offshore in the intervening period.