BNLA - Longitudinal Study of Humanitarian Migrants

"Building a New Life in Australia" (BNLA) is an important five-year longitudinal study about how refugees and other migrants settle into life in Australia. It is conducted by the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS). We at MMM are very proud to be involved in this project as the multicultural partner for AIFS, Colmar Brunton Social Research, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, and the Department of Social Services!

For the BNLA project, Wave 1 (the first year of the project) used an innovative tablet PC application.  Instead of interviewers needing to speak one of 20 languages, they used a tablet PC that they handed to the interview subject. The interviewee could tap on the tablet PC to choose a language, and then could read and hear the questions and answers in his or her own language. MMM translated the questions and answers, and recorded them in each language. MMM also trained the interviewers in cross-cultural communication techniques.


The Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) has released an article about the design and challenges of the research, and a profile of recruited participants.

You can read AIFS's article by pressing here.


(image source: AIFS's article)