Table 5 Description of variables considered for analysis (dependent variables)

At work

Whether the person is currently working in a job, business or farm. The wording of the survey questions varies, with CSAM referring explicitly to a “paid job” and LSIA 3 referring only to a “job”. It is therefore possible that respondents working as (unpaid) family workers, for example, would report themselves as employed in LSIA 3 but not in CSAM. To control for this possibility, we excluded the (few) observations in LSIA 3 where respondents stated that they had a job with zero earnings. This distinction had no impact on our results.

Highly skilled occupations

Whether the person works in highly skilled occupations (dummy). We consider 2 possible groupings of highly skilled occupations based on the 1 digit ANZSCO classification. Highly skilled occupations are defined as “managers and professionals”, or as “managers, professionals and technical and trades” in the sensitivity analysis.

Occupation codes at the 4-digit level are reported by LSIA 3 and CSAM and for respondents who are at work. The classification of occupations, however, changed from ASCO in LSIA3 to ANZSCO in CSAM. Translation tables are provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics at the 4 digit occupation level. These tables were used to recode the ASCO codes reported by LSIA 3 into ANZSCO codes. To ensure the highest possible degree of comparability between the major occupation groups (1 digit level) in ASCO and ANZSCO, further attention was devoted to the 35 instances where the 4 digit ASCO codes can be translated into several 4 digit ANZSCO codes that spanned 2 or more 1 digit occupation groups in ANZSCO. This situation concerned 19% of people at work in LSIA3.

For example, ASCO 2231 (Computing Professionals) can be translated into ANZSCO 1351 (ICT Managers), ANZSCO 2611–33 (ICT Business and Systems Analysts and other ICT professionals) or ANZSCO 3131 (ICT Support Technicians). Allocating the ASCO 2231 code reported by LSIA 3 is therefore complicated by the fact that we do not know to which of the three constituent ANZSCO codes any individual belongs. Furthermore, this choice will affect whether Computing Professionals (people with ASCO 2231) in LSIA3 end up working as Managers (group 1), Professionals (group 2) or as Technicians (groups 3) in the ANSCO classification used in CSAM. We addressed this issue by analysing the distribution across the constituent ANZSCO codes of observations reported by CSAM (in conjunction with the label of the occupation in ASCO. In the example above, CSAM reports 3 ICT managers, no ICT technicians, and 173 respondents classified as ICT professionals. In this case, we therefore allocated all observations with ASCO 2231 to ANZSCO 2611 (ICT professionals). Prima facie evidence in support of this approach is given by the close similarities between the population distributions of the ANZSCO codes imputed from LSIA 3 data and those reported by CSAM data for Family Stream migrants, as reported in Table 1.

Visa categories

Based on their visa number, respondents are classified into 6 visa categories.

1) Family visa (family)

2) Family/State/Territory sponsored visas (GSM)

3) Independent visas (GSM)

4) Employer visa, incl. LA and ENS (employer sponsored)

5) Business and distinguished talents visas (excluded from the analysis)

6) Graduate visas, temporary – only in CSAM (excluded from the analysis)

Covariates

Variable description and harmonisation (if any)

Age bands

Constructed from age, where age is defined as the difference between the year of the survey and the year of birth (year defined as 2005 for LSIA3, 2009 for CSAM cohort 1, and 2010 for CSAM cohort 2)

 • 18 – 24

 • 25 – 34

 • 35 – 44

 • 45 – 54

Male

male = 1; female = 0

Has a partner

Dummy variable. Equal to 1 if the respondent has a partner either in Australia or abroad. This question is asked directly in LSIA3. In CSAM the related question is whether the respondent applied to migrate with a partner. Other questions in CSAM ask about “the current relationship status” with their migrating partner, or about details of their “current partner”. These questions were used to impute a partner variable consistent with the question directly asked in LSIA3.

Partner working in Australia

Dummy variable. Whether the respondent currently has a partner who is at work in Australia. Exclude cases where the partner is at work abroad. Question directly asked in LSIA3. In CSAM, the labour market question refers to the respondent’s current partner without specifying their geographic location. From this we exclude cases where respondents report that their partner has not yet arrived in Australia to ensure greater consistency with the wording used in the question in LSIA3.

Number of children who migrated with PA

The number of the respondent’s children who migrated to Australia with the respondents (Primary Applicant) and are still living with the respondent. This variable imperfectly account for the number of children living in the household with the respondent. This definition captures the only common information regarding children, between the two surveys. Another related variable “Child in HH likely” was constructed for the sensitivity analysis, see below.

Has children who migrated

Dummy version of the variable above, except that it is coded 0/1 on whether there are children or not.

Child in HH likely

Dummy variable. Uses all the information available in each survey to impute whether a child is likely to be present in the respondent’s household. This includes information on the respondent’s and partner’s details of social benefits (child care rebate, parenting payments, etc.). Variable used in the sensitivity analysis only

Highest qualification

Refers to the highest post-school qualification obtained (in Australia or abroad). In LSIA3 the question was asked directly. In CSAM, respondents were asked about their highest qualification as well as their highest Australian qualification. Whichever qualification was highest was used in this case. Qualifications were harmonised under the following groups: ^a

 1) No post school qualification (incl. no schooling)

 2) AQF Certificate I-IV and other; AQF level 1–4

 3) Diploma and advanced diplomas; AQF level 5–6

 4) Bachelor and post-graduate Diploma (together in LSIA); AQF level 7–8

 5) Master’s level degree; AQF level 9

 6) Doctorate; AQF level 10

Highest qualification obtained in Australia

Dummy variable equal to 1 if the highest qualification was obtained in Australia.

State

Current state of residence: ACT, NSW, NT, QLD, SA, TAS, VIC, WA

On-shore visa application

Dummy variable: visa application onshore = 1

English proficiency

Respondents’ self-reported spoken English proficiency. Exactly the same question format and wording was used by both LSIA2 and CSAM. Answers were classified into three groups:

 1) Very well (including English reported as best language spoken)

 2) Well

 3) Not well or not at all

Reason for migrating

Reason for migrating to Australia. The question uses the exact same wording in LSIA3 and CSAM. The possible answers are

 1) Better future for family

 2) A higher standard of living

 3) Australia’s features – beaches, climate, lifestyle, etc.,

 4) To join family or relatives

 5) Work or business opportunities

Region of birth

Variable constructed from the reported country of birth. The regions considered are:

 • Born in an English speaking country (Australia, Canada, Ireland Republic, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom, or the United States)

 • Born in East Asia (China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Mongolia, South Korea, North Korea, or Taiwan)

 • Born in South Asia (Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, or Sri Lanka)

 • Born in South East Asia (Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, or Vietnam)

 • Born in the rest of the world

Current housing arrangement

The same question (exact words) was asked in both surveys but the choice of answers was worded slightly differently

 1) Owns home outright

 2) Mortgage

 3) Renting

 4) Lives with relatives

 5) other

Has a partner in Australia

Dummy variable. Whether the respondent has a partner in Australia. Excluded observations here respondent states having a partner abroad.

Time in Australia

Dummy variable. Equal to 1 if in Australia for 1.5 years or more. The comparability of this variable between LSIA and CSAM is questionable due to differences in the data that each survey reports.