Highly skilled and business migrants: Information processes and settlement outcomes

Abstract

This paper reports on a research programme that has investigated the migration experiences of highly skilled professional and business migrants to New Zealand. Over a four-year period, five separate studies have been conducted on the stages in the process of migration. The paper sets out a model of the stages of the migration process and the data and analysis which it has guided. Of particular interest are the information sources available to potential migrants and employers, the cultural sensitivity of settlement processes and the migrants' subsequent ease of access to the labour market. The paper analyses information flows available to migrants at crucial phases in the migration process based on a stages model of the migration process. The model indicates some of the critical steps, interactions, and decisions in the migration process from the individual's point of view. Crucial information gaps are identified and implications are drawn for actors involved at the different stages. Iredale of Appleyard (2002) give an overview that brings out the main themes of recent research on the international migration of the highly skilled. This paper picks up on one of those themes, namely the drivers and information processes behind such migration. Our analysis is based on some New Zealand studies which found that New Zealand, still very much a "traditional receiver" country, although also going through a "brain drain", receives migrants who either cannot or do not find sufficiently detailed information before departure. They then are stimulated to migrate to New Zealand by primarily personal, lifestyle/aspirational drivers (rather than industry and market requirements); thus there is a gap between migrant expectations of settlement and the reality of the process. Formal information sources are scant, and/or have little visibility in target sending-countries. There is a resulting over-reliance on informal networks, both offshore prior to departure and onshore on arrival. Recommendations are made on information strategies for government, intermediaries, and, most importantly, business organizations, and on areas for further research.