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    Selection bias operating against skilled candidates from countries-of-origin other than New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2003) Coates, Kim Michele
    New Zealand is opening up its borders to attract skilled migrants to fill occupational shortages highlighted as important for New Zealand's economic and social development. Despite highly skilled immigrants gaining residency, many are unable to secure employment in their area of expertise. This logjam suggests that there are specific human factors such as selection biases operating against candidates from certain countries in the New Zealand employment context. The issue of selection bias was addressed by examining the perceived similarity between country-of-origin to country-of-destination, and the perceived social dominance of country-of-origin vis-Ȥ-vis country-of-destination. Eighty Subject Matter Experts with approximately 10 years experience participating in/watching selection panels completed a scenario format that elicited their estimates of Human Resource and Line Managers' selection preferences for jobs in twelve key occupations. Candidates were presented as coming from countries-of-origin that varied from Australia to Southern and South East Asian, Southern African, and Pacific Island nations, but were otherwise equally skilled, qualified for the given job, and costly to employ. Despite this equality of match to the job, there were significant biases for and against different countries-of-origin. Specifically, candidates from countries-of-origin perceived to be more similar to New Zealand, and candidates from countries-of-origin perceived to be socially dominant, were preferred over candidates from countries-of-origin less similar and subordinate. The discussion focuses on improving the methodology, and opening up the discussion field for future research.
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    The role of personality and coping on the well-being of South African immigrants : a thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Psychology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2000) Pietersen, Clara
    This thesis explores and researches the outcome variables of loneliness, depression, well-being and anxiety in terms of immigration. It investigates the impact and relationships of demographics, personality and coping on these outcome variables. The research sample consisted of South African immigrants who had lived in New Zealand for six years or less. The research collected quantitative data through a questionnaire. Participants were acquired through the South African New Zealand Trust (SANZ) and by word of mouth, using a snowballing technique. The questionnaire was distributed by post to willing participants. The questionnaire consisted of six scales: the revised UCLA Loneliness scale, the General Health Questionnaire, the Beck's Depression Inventory, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the NEO-FFI and a coping scale consisting of items from the Cybernetic Coping Scale and the Cope Scales. In addition to the scales it included questions concerning demographics. Overall, these immigrants experienced normal levels of loneliness, anxiety, depression and well-being. Significant differences in the outcome variables were found for gender, marital status, employment status, pertinent job skills/qualifications, being a member of SANZ, involvement in community activities and distribution of friends. Significant differences were also found for demographics in terms of personality and coping. The predictive ability of personality and coping towards the outcome variables was evaluated. Neuroticism was found to be a significant predictor of the outcome variables, whereas the other personality traits and coping were not significant predictors of the outcome variables.
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    Immigration acculturation process : a study of adaptation experiences of elderly dependent Chinese immigrants in Auckland : a 52.785 research report presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Business Studies at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1999) Wang, Zheng
    Over the past decade, there has been a "new wave" of Asian immigrants to New Zealand. The majority of these immigrants are Chinese. Following the wave of immigration of younger Chinese, a large number of elderly Chinese immigrated to New Zealand in the past five years under the Family Reunion Category to live with their sons or daughters. In a new environment, many of them suffer from language difficulty, changing of relationships between family members, discontent, stress, and cross-culture shock. As elderly family members of an ethnic minority group, they have not received much attention in the New Zealand society. The main purpose of this study is to examine the adaptation experiences of elderly dependent Chinese immigrants who moved to New Zealand in recent years. For the purpose of this research, an elderly dependent Chinese immigrant is defined as an ethnic Chinese above the age of 50 and who immigrated to New Zealand in the last five years to be with their children. In this study, the change of New Zealand's immigration policies is summarized. Traditional Chinese value on child-parents relationships is discussed to indicate that in a new Chinese immigrant family, this issue impact on both the adjustment experiences of older parents and the adaptation processes of younger family members when they move to a new environment such as New Zealand. Dominant social gerontological theories are seen as limited in explaining the aging experience in adjustment of the elderly dependent Chinese immigrants. Assimilation theory is also described to try to give more explanation on immigrant adjustment. Finally, cross-cultural adjustment study which plays an important part in analyzing the immigrant's acculturation in the foreign environment is adopted to examine the process of acculturation of the elderly dependent Chinese immigrants. The main part of the study involved group-administered questionnaire surveys to measure the various aspects of the adaptation, while selected in-depth interviews were conducted by the researcher to explore the issue of influence of relationships between the elderly dependent Chinese immigrants and other family members in the New Zealand environment. The key findings of this study are: (1) The five main factors that influence the living condition in New Zealand of elderly dependent Chinese immigrants are language difficulty, medical care, transportation, cost of living, and relationships with other family members. (2) The 50 - 59 age group among the respondents thinks that immigration to New Zealand was helpful to their family. However, the same age group responded that they are suffering more stress in the New Zealand environment. (3) Respondents who have lived in New Zealand between 1 and 2 years support that learning English is important and equally understanding the local culture is important. (4) The study also showed that when the immigrant family coped well in the local culture, the influence of the five factors (language difficulty, medical care, transportation, cost of living, and relationships with other family members) significantly impact less on the living conditions of the elderly dependent Chinese immigrants in New Zealand. (5) Based on factor analysis, elderly Chinese immigrants who were less adaptive, less cooperative and less participative in the New Zealand environments responded that they may decide to leave New Zealand. As a corollary than, the immigrants and their families with high degree of contentment may decide to stay in New Zealand and become more adaptive, more cooperative and more participative. The results generally support the application of the four-stage adjustment model of Oberg (1960) in the study of expatriates and Expatriate Acculturation Process (EAP) Model of Selvarajah (1998) in the study of immigrants.