Since the mid-1990s, the Australian immigration programme has undergone a 'paradigm' shift to encourage skilled migrants to settle in regional Australia. The success of this programme is dependent on not just attracting increasing numbers of settlers but more importantly on retaining them in the long run in regional Australia. In this paper, we argue the importance of social connectedness for long-term stay in a particular place and empirically examine the determinants of social connectedness in regional Australia. We use the data from a national survey of 500 randomly selected principal applicants who migrated under the regional sponsored migration scheme. We derived a composite measure of social connectedness from responses to five questions about regular participation in various community activities. Logistic regression models were employed to examine the factors that contribute to social connectedness. Of all the covariates included in the model, five were critical for strong social connectedness. The families with young children, those who have lived in Australia longer, those living in small towns and those who were born in the USA/Canada, South Africa and Zimbabwe showed much stronger social connectedness than others. Another interesting finding was that those who found the assistance they received from their employer sponsor upon arrival helpful were also more likely to have strong social connectedness. The paper concludes with the policy implications and future research directions on this very important social issue.

This paper focuses on the residential mobility of middle‐aged persons, not yet retired, an understudied cohort in mobility research. From the 1950s to the 1980s, mobility studies pointed to mid‐life as a settled stage in terms of family, work and housing. Recent demographic and social changes, however, have led to these years being typified by a wide gamut of living arrangements that have complicated decisions about, and patterns of, residential mobility. Using the life‐course perspective, this paper suggests that the transition to ‘empty nester’ status will heighten mobility among this group of middle‐aged persons relative to their counterparts in other living arrangements. The analysis uses a customised migration matrix from the Australian 2006 Census and identifies segments of 45–64 year olds most likely to have changed address since the previous census in 2001. CHAID statistical method partitioned the 45–64 year old population in Melbourne, Australia, into eight statistically significant segments based on life‐course factors and mobility levels. Younger (45–54 years) mid‐life empty‐nesters changed residence at 1.4 times the mobility rate of all mid‐life persons. For couples in this age group, empty nest status conferred a 13 percentage point ‘mobility premium’ compared with couples that still had children at home. The results contribute to a better understanding of housing consumption among mid‐life households and broader debates on access to affordable housing and processes of urban growth. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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