The survey sample will be drawn from migrants who are approved for residence, who take up residence and are aged 16 years and over. The sample includes both principal applicants and those family members who enter New Zealand with the principal applicant. It will however, exclude refugees, temporary visitors, persons in New Zealand unlawfully and people from Australia, Niue, Cook Islands and Tokelau.
Approximately 7,000 new migrants will be recruited for the survey. Each migrant in the sample will be interviewed at about six, 18 and 36 months after residence up-take. A third wave sample of around 5,000 migrants is expected, allowing for attrition.
A complex survey such as this has required a substantial amount of development work. Development work was undertaken from July 1999 to January 2003 (43 months). Work included: finalising the survey information needs in consultation with external agencies; finalising the sample selection method and all aspects of survey development including the development of a pilot.
The dress rehearsal pilot trialled the entire survey process with a sample of 690 new migrants interviewed in July/August 2001 and 540 of the same in July/August 2002. The main objective of the pilot was to test the expected loss of participants to the survey, the survey methodology and the questionnaire. The data was also analysed and a pilot report produced.