Understanding migrant outcomes - enhancing the value of Census data, Australia, 2011

This first issue publication presents output and statistical results from the 2011 Migrants Census Data Enhancement (CDE) Project, one of the several projects undertaken following the 2011 Census. It involves linking data from the 2011 Census to data from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship\u27s (DIAC) Settlement Data Base (SDB) for permanent migrants who arrived in Australia between 1 January 2000 and 9 August 2011. Importantly it improves and expands the range of official migrant statistics available to Australian society.For the first time, the settlement outcomes of recent migrants can be cross classified by their entry conditions, such as visa stream, whether they applied onshore or offshore, and whether they were a main or secondary applicant.Some highlights of the statistical output reveal that on Census night 2011:there were 1.3 million permanent migrants who had arrived in Australia according to DIAC\u27s SDB since 1 January 2000 present in Australia: 716,793 (56%) having arrived through the Skilled stream, 418,553 (33%) via the Family stream, and 138,355 (11%) arrived under the Humanitarian stream.offshore applicants accounted for 67% of arrivals while the remaining third were onshore applicants main applicants accounted for 59% of all migrants who arrived permanently in Australia since 1 January 2000, whilst the remaining 41% were secondary applicantsFor those migrants aged 15 years and over who had arrived permanently since 1 January 2000Skilled stream migrants: 76% were employed, 4.9% were unemployed and 19% were not in the labour forceFamily stream migrants: 56% were employed, 6.4% were unemployed and 37% were not in the labour forceHumanitarian stream migrants: 32% were employed, 8.7% were unemployed and 56% were not in the labour force)Over one third (35%) of Skilled stream migrants aged 5 years and over spoke only English, compared with 29% of Family stream migrants and 4.9% Humanitarian stream migrantsAlmost 60% of Skilled stream migrants spoke English either very well or well in addition to speaking another language. While the proportion of Humanitarian stream migrants speaking only English was low, almost 62% indicated that they spoke English very well or well&nbsp