A Validation of the Ethnosurvey: The Case of Mexico-U.S. Migration

This article evaluates the validity of the ethnosurvey as a method of demographic data collection by analyzing the representativeness of the Mexican Migration Project (MMP) as a source of information on Mexico-U.S. migration. After briefly delineating the philosophy, structure, and organization of t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The International migration review 2000-10, Vol.34 (3), p.766-793
Main Authors: Massey, Douglas S., Zenteno, Rene
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acculturation
Age
Analysis
Bias
Bibliography
Communities
Data collection
Datasets
Demographic surveys
Demographics
Demography
Emigration and immigration
Error of Measurement
Errors
Ethnography
Heads of Households
Households
Human migration
Immigrants
Immigration
Internal migration
International migration
Labor migration
Latin American Cultural Groups
Marital Status
Methodology (Data Collection)
Methods
Mexican Americans
Mexicans
Mexico
Migrant communities
Migrants
Migration
Minority & ethnic groups
Ownership
Polls & surveys
Public use
Questionnaires
Representativeness
Research Methodology
Research methods
Resistance (Psychology)
Sampling
Sampling error
Selection bias
Social Services
Sociology
Specification
Surveys
U.S.A
United States
United States of America
USA
Validity
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Description
Summary:This article evaluates the validity of the ethnosurvey as a method of demographic data collection by analyzing the representativeness of the Mexican Migration Project (MMP) as a source of information on Mexico-U.S. migration. After briefly delineating the philosophy, structure, and organization of the MMP's ethnosurvey design, we describe MMP's public use dataset as well as Mexico's Encuesta Nacional de la Dinamica Demografica (ENADID) as a benchmark for its systematic evaluation. Although the MMP over-represents migrants in the western states and mid-sized communities, it yields a relatively accurate and valid profile of migrants to the United States. A comparison of multivariate models estimated using MMP and ENADID data suggests that whereas the former's sampling errors are small and yield biases that are substantively unimportant, the latter's potential for specification error and selection bias may seriously compromise results. Our comparison thus validates the ethnosurvey as an accurate and reliable method of data collection and the MMP as a good source of reasonably representative data on documented and undocumented migration to the United States.
ISSN:0197-9183
1747-7379
DOI:10.1177/019791830003400305