The Integrated Tree Model© – Asian Wellbeing Framework 

The Integrated Tree Model©, developed by Asian Family Services (AFS) in the early 2000s, provides a culturally grounded framework for understanding Asian wellbeing and the migration journey. Using the metaphor of a transplanted tree, the model illustrates how migration affects both the individual and their surrounding environments. The roots, trunk, branches and leaves, flowers and fruit symbolise a person’s inner characteristics, including cognition, personality, lived experiences, and the psychological and behavioural manifestations of these factors. Three surrounding layers represent the ecological contexts in which the person lives: immediate relationships such as family and friends; the wider community and neighbourhood; and the broader socio-economic, legal, cultural, and normative systems. 

The model recognises that, like a tree transplanted into new soil, migrants are affected at multiple levels when they enter a new country. Their adjustment and wellbeing are shaped not only by their individual strengths and vulnerabilities, but also by the supports, pressures, and opportunities within their surrounding environment. In this way, the Integrated Tree Model© explains the dynamic interaction between internal characteristics and external influences in shaping health, mental health, coping, resilience, and wellbeing outcomes.  

AFS has applied the model across its public health, peer support, cultural support, and clinical practice to understand the migration journey, including strengths, environmental changes, triggers, protective factors, stages of acculturation, and clients’ experiences of grief, loss, adaptation, and flourishing. Importantly, the model also encompasses the descendants of migrants, acknowledging that although they may not have migrated themselves, their wellbeing and identity are often influenced by intergenerational migration histories, family expectations, cultural values, and their navigation of belonging within the wider social environment. 

In the Integrated Tree Model©: 

• Roots represent culture, beliefs, values, and ways of thinking. 

• The trunk represents identity, including ethnicity, age, gender, and personality. 

• Branches and leaves represent life experiences, education, language, and skills (for example, experiences of the migration journey). 

• Flowers and fruits represent health and wellbeing outcomes. 

Around the tree, multiple environmental layers also shape wellbeing: 

• Soil and water represent the direct influence of family, friends, and the close community. 

• Air and moisture represent the surrounding environment, including home, workplace, school, neighbourhood, media, and social media. 

• Sunlight, temperature, and climate represent the wider world, including laws, policies, host culture, social norms, and socio-economic environments. 

The “Integrated” concept in the Integrated Tree Model© refers to the process of building strong and meaningful connections between migrant communities, local communities, and the wider society. Like a tree in a forest, where a robust ecological network is essential for survival and flourishing, migrants also require deep-rooted support systems in order to adapt and thrive in a new environment. These connections provide the foundation for belonging, resilience, and wellbeing. 

The Integrated Tree Model© therefore emphasises the importance of fostering a sense of belonging and actively strengthening support networks. It also encourages a deeper understanding of New Zealand’s social, cultural, and institutional systems through an ecological framework. In this sense, integration is understood as a relational process that promotes mutual understanding, shared support, and more sustainable connections between migrant and local communities, thereby enhancing overall wellbeing.