Building a new life in Australia: The Longitudinal Survey of Refugees and other Migrants

The Department of Immigration and Citizenship is funding and developing a longitudinal survey of refugees and other migrants to trace the settlement journey from arrival in Australia through to citizenship. The survey will commence in the second half of 2012 and is planned to run through to 2017.

The survey will enable the department to better understand the factors that give people the best possible start and aid successful settlement.

The survey will follow a large group of new refugees – supplemented by a smaller group of other migrants – on the course of their settlement journey, checking in on them at different stages. The findings are intended to build the evidence base on the factors that aid successful settlement and lead to improved policies and program delivery.

The fact sheet Building a new life in Australia: introducing the longitudinal survey of refugees and other migrants gives more information on the development of the survey.
See: Fact Sheet – Building a new life in Australia: introducing the longitudinal survey of refugees and other migrants ( 72K B PDF file)

Initial steps

During 2011-12 detailed survey development work will be undertaken, culminating in a pilot survey in the June 2012 quarter.

A Survey Reference Group will be established, comprising Commonwealth government officials, and external stakeholders and experts. The group will be chaired by Dr Wendy Southern PSM, Deputy Secretary. It is envisaged that the group will meet three times during development of the survey development and annually thereafter.

A Technical Advisory Group, comprising experts in refugee resettlement and longitudinal survey research methods and analysis, will assist the Survey Reference Group.

During the development of the survey, the group will advise on the underlying concepts for the survey and make recommendations on technical matters.

This group will be chaired by Mark Cully, Chief Economist, and will convene as required. Experts will be commissioned as necessary to produce discussion papers.

Getting involved

We want this survey to be of the highest possible standard and to be widely used by policy-makers and researchers.  To achieve this, we are on the look-out for good ideas from a wide range of sources.

Therefore, if you have an interest in research and a good knowledge of refugee settlement issues, please contact us on the email below.
Email: newlife@immi.gov.au

Updates on the development and progress of the survey and survey results (when available), will be made available on this page.