CHARACTERISTICS OF RECENT MIGRANTS

Following on from the release of the Characteristics of Recent Migrants, Australia (cat. no. 6250.0) publication and associated data cubes in early June 2011, the Technical Manual and expanded 'Confidentialised Unit Record File' (CURF) were released in September 2011.

The Technical Manual: Characteristics of Recent Migrants, Expanded CURF, Australia (cat. no. 6250.0.55.001) provides information about the release of microdata from the most recent Characteristics of Recent Migrants Survey (CORMS), and general information and technical details about the CURF. The manual should be used as a reference document when interrogating the file.

What is microdata? Microdata are the most detailed information available from a survey and are generally the answers to most of the specific questions on the questionnaire, or the data derived from answers to two or more questions. The microdata are only released with the approval of the Australian Statistician, and for CORMS are only available through an expanded Confidentialised Unit Record File (CURF).

The expanded CORMS CURF provides statistics about migration visa category, country of birth, proficiency in spoken English, educational attainment on arrival and since arrival, employment prior to arrival and since arrival, and sources of household income. A list of all the data items on the expanded CURF, including details of categories and code values, are available from the Downloads tab (cat. no. 6250.0.55.001).

The CURF enables users to tabulate, manipulate and analyse data to their own individual specifications. Steps to confidentialise the dataset have been taken to ensure integrity of data, optimise its content and maintain confidentiality of respondents. This includes removing any information that might uniquely identify an individual, reducing the level of detail for some items, and collapsing some categories.

The CURF can be accessed through the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Remote Access Data Laboratory (RADL) or via an ABS Data Laboratory (ABSDL). Further information about the RADL and ABSDL services, and other information to assist users in understanding and using CURFs in general, is available from the CURF Microdata Entry Page.