Methodology

This section of the report outlines the survey methodology and the statistical analysis undertaken.

Survey Population

The SEFS questionnaire was mailed out to a randomly selected sample of new migrants, aged 16 years and over, whose contact details were known 12 months after they had taken up residence.

The survey was sent to migrants whose residence applications were approved both offshore and onshore. For migrants whose application was approved offshore, the survey questionnaire was posted 12 months after they arrived in New Zealand. For those migrants who were already onshore when their application was approved, the questionnaire was posted 12 months after the approval of their residence application.[4]

The survey was also sent to migrants approved under the Talent and LTSSL work permit categories 12 months after approval of their application, or 12 months after their arrival in New Zealand.

Questionnaire

The SEFS questionnaire was designed by the Department of Labour to collect information about migrants’ satisfaction with Immigration New Zealand; their current employment status and other recent activities; their satisfaction with housing and, where applicable, with their children’s schools; the services they have accessed from a government or private organisation in the last 12 months; and their likes and dislikes about living in New Zealand.

A copy of the SEFS questionnaire can be found in Appendix A.

Survey Administration

Research New Zealand, an independent market and social research company, was contracted to administer the 2007 SEFS. The Department of Labour provided the names and contact details of all migrants who were eligible to participate in the survey to Research New Zealand under strict confidentiality.

Research New Zealand selected a random sample of principal and secondary applicants with known contact details and posted out the questionnaires. Two reminder letters were sent to those migrants who had not responded to the survey, approximately one and three weeks after the initial mail out. The first reminder letter also included a second copy of the survey questionnaire.

In order to boost the response rate to the 2007 SEFS, non-respondents with known telephone numbers were contacted approximately one month after the initial mail out to confirm if they were willing to participate in the survey, and where this was the case, they were surveyed by telephone.

All responses to the survey were collated and data entered, and monthly reports on the survey’s progress were provided to the Department of Labour.

Survey Coverage

As noted above, the 2007 SEFS was posted out to a randomly selected sample of eligible principal and secondary applicants with known New Zealand addresses who had taken up residence or had their application approved onshore between January 2006 and June 2006. Therefore, the survey was sent out 12 months after residence approval or arrival, between January 2007 and June 2007.

Participation in the SEFS is voluntary, and respondents were able to complete it on an anonymous basis, if they chose. The overall response rate to the survey was 57 percent.

Analysis

The results from the 2007 SEFS presented in the remainder of this report are primarily descriptive. During the analysis, the results were examined for differences between applicant type (i.e. principal versus secondary), onshore versus offshore approval, region of origin (see comments below), as well as the gender of the applicant.

For the most part, the results are stratified by principal and secondary applicants, to provide an indication of differences in settlement outcomes by applicant status and, where relevant, by the migrants’ region of origin, in order to gain an understanding of settlement outcomes and experiences for migrants from different regions. To facilitate this, four regions were used:

• United Kingdom/Ireland
• ESANA (Europe, South Africa and North America)
• Asia
• Other.

In order to have a robust sub-sample for analysis, the North Asia, South Asia and South-East Asia regions have been combined as one region. The Pacific region has been combined with the Other regions, as there was an insufficient sample size of Pacific origin respondents to conduct any meaningful analysis. With the exception of the collapsed Asia and Other regions, the other two regions are categories that are consistent with the Department of Labour’s analysis and reporting style.

The analysis determined that there were no statistically significant differences between applicants who were approved onshore versus offshore. Similarly, there were also very few differences when viewed by gender or the age of the migrant. As such, differences by gender or age, or other key variables of interest, are generally commented on in the body of the report only when they are statistically significant.

In addition to the above analyses, the results were examined for differences between two applicant approval grouping categories for principal applicants only:

• those approved under an SMC, LTSSL or Talent category
• those approved under an Entrepreneur, Investor or LTBV category.

Time series analysis was also conducted to identify if there were any significant differences between the findings for principal applicants who participated in the 2007 SEFS and those found by the 2005 and 2006 surveys. As a matter of course, this is commented on at the end of each sub-section where relevant.

As a final note, given the relative homogeneity of the findings across the various key variables of interest, and a desire to maintain consistency with how the 2005 SEFS results were reported and published, the 2007 SEFS data has not been weighted to adjust for the over/under representation of migrants based upon their characteristics, as detailed in Table 29 in Appendix E (Sampling and Limitations).