Seeking a Better Work-life Balance: Expectations and Perceptions of Work-related Practices and Attitudes of Recent Immigrants to New Zealand

The retention of immigrant employees has been long recognized as a challenge. Understanding immigrants' expectations and work-related experiences is important in the development of interventions to retain immigrant employees. The reported research investigated recent immigrants' reasons for migration, and their work-related attitudes and perceptions of New Zealand's work-related practices. The immigrants' responses were compared to individuals who had only ever lived and worked in New Zealand. Lifestyle factors were more important than work-related factors in the immigrants' reasons for migration. Overall job satisfaction was high and work-family conflict low, and the immigrants showed fewer behaviors associated with workaholism than did the New Zealand-based group. Moreover, immigrants showed more positive behaviors and perceptions of their current, as compared with their previous, employment. The results are discussed in terms of attraction and retention of immigrant employees and their acculturation to New Zealand.