Professor Paul Spoonley is Research Director for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Massey University. He is the Director for the Integration of Immigrants Programme (MSI) and the Nga Tangata Oho Mairangi/Regional Impacts of Demographic and Economic Change, both of which are multi-year funded research programmes that have received more than $NZ4 million in funding from the Ministry of Science and Innovation. Previously, he was the Director of the Labour Market Dynamics Research Programme that examined the nature of contemporary employment conditions and trends for a period of almost 10 years. He was the recipient of the Royal Society Science and Technology Medal in 2009, a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of California Berkeley in 2010 and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2011. He is a member of the International Steering Committee of Metropolis, an international network of immigration researchers and policy analysts. He is the author or editor of 27 books, including Mata Toa. The Life and Times of Ranginui Walker (2009), Welcome to Our World? Immigration and the Transformation of New Zealand (2012) and Diverse Nations, Diverse Responses. Approaches to Social Cohesion in Immigrant Societies (2012).

He joined IZA as a Research Fellow in January 2013.