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MIGRANT STATISTICS

OBJECTIVES

The Migrant Statistics Program aims to understand and support high priority emerging needs for migrant statistics by providing relevant statistical solutions, including analysis, to inform policy and research in relation to migrants and their settlement outcomes. Key elements of the program include the three-yearly Characteristics of Recent Migrants Survey and data integration projects that use statistical techniques to link migration visa information with other data sets such as the Census of Population and Housing and Australian Taxation Office's Personal Income Tax records. These data integration projects provide new insights about the settlement outcomes of migrants, while being cost efficient in terms of data collection.

The activities of the Migrant Statistics Program are led by the National Migrant Statistics Unit, and are delivered through collaboration with many areas of the ABS which contribute statistics for migrants including the Census of Population and Housing. A key component of the program is the outposting of an ABS officer to the Commonwealth Department of Immigration and Border Protection.

The major stakeholders of the program are the Commonwealth Departments of Immigration and Border Protection and Social Services, and various other Australian and state and territory government agencies which provide services to migrants and ethnic groups.


OUTPUTS

The main outputs of the program are:

• the Australian Census and Migrants Integrated Dataset, which can be accessed as micro data (cat. no. 3417.0.55.001) or viewed through summary tables (cat. no. 3417.0)
• research papers which explain the findings of data integration studies undertaken to improve the range and quality of migrants data available to users
• the Migrant Data Matrices (cat. no. 3415.0), which help users to find and access data about migrants from the one location on the ABS website
• the Guide to Migrant Statistical Sources (cat no. 3414.0), which contains information about ABS and non-ABS statistical data
• the three-yearly Characteristics of Recent Migrants, Australia (cat. no. 6250.0)
• the Perspectives on Migrants (cat. no. 3416.0) article series which provide analysis of migrant data from the ABS and other sources
• the Migrant and Ethnicity Topics @ a Glance page on the ABS website
• statistical activities aimed at promoting and developing national standards such as frameworks, classifications and definitions (e.g. Standards for Statistics on Cultural and Language Diversity (cat. no. 1289.0))
• the coordination and specification of statistical data needs through consultation with data users and, where appropriate, undertaking development work to meet those needs
• the coordination of ABS activity to ensure that issues relevant to migrants are taken into account in statistical development activities.

• build collaborative working arrangements with users and producers of migrant statistics - ongoing
• develop an ongoing linked data series using Australian Taxation Office Personal Income Tax records and migrant settlement records that will inform about migrant settlement outcomes - feasibility study to be published August 2014
• assess the quality and potential of administrative data about temporary migrants held by DIBP and DSS with a view to undertaking data integration with the 2016 Census - due October 2014
• influence the content of ABS collections which are of most interest and highest priority to migrant statistics stakeholders - ongoing
• review migrant related standards and increase the standardisation of migrant statistical sources through the development and adoption of relevant standards - ongoing.