The Ethnosurvey & The Mexican Migration Project

Outline Context and Historical Overview Methodology Publications

Move Towards the Survey Rooted in the Census Transformation of Formal Demography into Social Demography Topical issues Relationship between population and social processes Census no longer adequate Why, not just What? Implementation of Survey’s began 1982, the Ethnosurvey

The Mexican Migration Project (MMP) Designed by Massey et al. to analyze the social processes of migration Combined Effort First Survey Communities Now 124 Annual interviews Specifically targets migrants in Mexico and the US

Ethnosurvey Methodology of the MMP “A full understanding of the migration process requires information that is historically grounded, ethnographically interpreted, and quantitatively rigorous.” Designed to operate at the community level en.aspx

Sampling Techniques Varied communities selected Mapped Random Sample Sample size similar across communities Low refusal rate CommunityMap.gif

US migrant Sampling Techniques Snowball sampling Potential for bias? Confidentiality ht-on-Mexican-Immigrants-April-2008-map.gif

Question Design and Interview “Informal and unthreatening” Semi-structured Two phases Detail History AgeTrips to US State in US Money Transfer House Hold Head Mother Child

Data Coding and File Construction Coding conducted by field assistants familiar with the interview process. Checked multiple times for clerical errors

Ethnosurvey Strengths Analyze detailed data compared to the census Can document trends extremely well Makes further analysis easy Control for distortion Results were congruent with Mexican research (Massey and Zenteno 1999)

Ethnosurvey Weaknesses High costs and upkeep Cannot explain causality, just note trends Explains behavior not motivations Qualitative up to a point

Ethnosurvey Weaknesses, continued… Broad Quantifications Quantify human beings Not generalizable Only actually applied in one setting

Examples Articles from MMP (Phillips and Massey 2000) (Kanaiaupuni 2000) (Bauer, Epstein and Gang 2002)

Conclusion “First we shape our buildings and then they shape us. The same may be said of our statistics.” –Winston Chrucill

Reference List: Bauer, Thomas, Gil Epstein, and Ira Gang Herd Effects or Migration Networks? The Location Choice of Mexican Immigrants in the U.S. Mobility and Flexibility of Labor 11, no. 8: Kanaiaupuni, Shawn Reframing the Migration Question: An Analysis of Men, Women, and Gender in Mexico. Social Forces 78, no. 4: Massey, Douglas, Rafael Alarcon, Jorge Durand, and Humberto González The Social Process of International Migration from Western Mexico. New York: University of California. Massey, Douglas, and Rene Zenteno A Validation of the Ethnosurvey: The Case of Mexico-U.S. Migration. International Migration Review 34: Phillips, Julie, and Douglas Massey Engines of Immigration: Stocks of Human and Social Capital in Mexcio. Social Science Quarterly 81, no. 1: The Mexican Migration Project Home. Mexican Migration Project. (accessed February 20, 2010). Weeks, John Population An Introduction to Concepts and Issues. New York: Belmont:Wadsworth.