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Basic requirements for using a household survey to produce good

quality migration data

Dean H. Judson, Ph.D.Immigration Statistics Staff

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Presentation Outline

• A Bit of History• Guiding Principles to Measuring Migration• Our Data Sources• Questions We Ask

– Citizenship– Year of Entry– Place of Birth– Change in Residence

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A Bit of History

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Guiding Principles

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U.N. principles for improving migration statistics

• Three general problems recognized:

– Missing data (for example, data on emigration)

– Incomplete data (for example, data on undocumented migrants)

– Inconsistent data (for example, data on temporary migrants)

• A crosswalk of operational definitions for immigrant stocks and flows

– Foreign-born, foreign background, country of usual residence, long-term

migrant, short-term migrant

• Common definitions of new migrant typologies needed

– Temporary, circular, labor, irregular migrants

• A compilation of emerging practices for measuring temporary and

illegal migrants

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Some practical principles• Know exactly what you want to ask

– Legal and social context

– International context

• Ask as little as possible– Respondent burden versus overly simplified questions

• Ask about today if you can– Recall bias

– Some questions must be asked

• Be careful about sensitive questions– Migrant legal status

– Religion

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Three Data Sources

Census Long Form

American Community

Survey

Current Population

Survey

Single Day, every decade Monthly rolling survey,

adjusted to July 1 population

Monthly labor force survey

All residents of the U.S.A. U.S. household population,

*excluded group quarters in

2005

U.S. civilian, non-

institutionalized population

About 17 million addresses 3 million addresses 100,000 addresses

Mail-out questionnaires and

follow-up interviews (about

70 percent by mail)

Mail-out questionnaires and

CATI/CAPI (about 50 percent

by mail)

Telephone and personal-visit

interviews (CATI/CAPI)

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The Questions We Ask

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Citizenship

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Citizenship Question• Used to estimate total number of foreign born in the

United States

• Foreign born serves as a proxy for “international migrant”

• No ability to distinguish between “short-term migrants” and “long-term migrants” using this question

• Enumerates person (migrant), not event (migration)

• Country of citizenship (where person is not a citizen of the U.S. or holds dual citizenship) is not asked

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C05002. PLACE OF BIRTH BY CITIZENSHIP STATUS - Universe: TOTAL POPULATION Data Set: 2005 American Community Survey Survey: 2005 American Community Survey NOTE. Data are limited to the household population and exclude the population living in institutions, college dormitories, and other group quarters. For information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions, see Survey Methodology.

View the noncollapsed version of this table.

United States Estimate Margin of Error Total: 288,378,137 *****

Native: 252,688,295 +/-131,480 Born in state of residence 170,473,495 +/-157,459 Born in other state in the United States 78,646,349 +/-149,013 Born outside the United States: 3,568,451 +/-33,395

Puerto Rico 1,336,224 +/-22,565 U.S. Island Areas or born abroad of American parent(s) 2,232,227 +/-24,971

Foreign born 35,689,842 +/-131,480

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2005 American Community Survey

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Total: 39,258,293 +/-129,198

Entered 2000 or later: 8,387,633 +/-89,573

Native 447,811 +/-15,851

Foreign born: 7,939,822 +/-90,590

Naturalized U.S. citizen 476,492 +/-17,548

Not a U.S. citizen 7,463,330 +/-88,660

Entered 1990 to 1999: 11,927,834 +/-95,041

Native 683,300 +/-19,446

Foreign born: 11,244,534 +/-92,699

Naturalized U.S. citizen 3,319,416 +/-50,996

Not a U.S. citizen 7,925,118 +/-82,909

Entered 1980 to 1989: 8,554,673 +/-69,346

Native 640,052 +/-15,318

Foreign born: 7,914,621 +/-64,464

Naturalized U.S. citizen 4,437,597 +/-52,342

Not a U.S. citizen 3,477,024 +/-44,468

Entered before 1980: 10,388,153 +/-54,310

Native 1,797,288 +/-24,455

Foreign born: 8,590,865 +/-49,461

Naturalized U.S. citizen 6,734,323 +/-45,077

Not a U.S. citizen 1,856,542 +/-26,092

B05005. YEAR OF ENTRY BY CITIZENSHIP STATUS IN THE UNITED STATES - Universe: POPULATION BORN OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATESData Set: 2005 American Community SurveySurvey: 2005 American Community Survey

NOTE. Data are limited to the household population and exclude the population living in institutions, college dormitories, and other group quarters. For information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions, see Survey Methodology.

United States

Estimate Margin of Error

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2005 American Community Survey

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Year of Entry

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Year of Entry Question

• Asks year of entry into the United States• Frequently used as a proxy for date of arrival• Problematic for people who have entered

more than once• Differences in interpretation of question• Year of Arrival (first; most recent) vs. Year of

Entry (first; most recent)

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Language Use by Year of Entry

88.589.5

78.5

23.7

33.134.9

55.4

43.6

65.8

Foreign born; Entered 2000 or later Foreign born; Entered 1990 to 1999 Foreign born; Entered before 1990

Language other than English

Speak English "very well"

Speak English less than "very well"

Source: ACS 2005, S0502: Selected Characteristics of the Foreign-Born Population by Period of Entry into the United States

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Place of Birth

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Place of Birth Question

• Used to estimate number of foreign born who are born in a particular country or region of the world

• Previous country of usual residence is not asked; place of birth may serve as a proxy

• Boundary changes require reclassification of some responses

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Parental Nativity and Generational Status

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CPS Nativity Question Screen

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Parental Nativity Question

• Reflects U.S. legal definition of citizenship, where children of citizens are citizens

• Allows measurement of the demographic impact of foreign born

• Parents born abroad may still be U.S. citizens• We do not know how people with adopted

children from overseas answer this question

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Foreign born (dark blue) andChildren with at least on foreign born parent (light blue)

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Residence One Year Ago

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Measuring migration by asking about change from a fixed time period, “one year ago”.

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Residence One Year Ago Question

• Asks country of prior residence if person lived in a different place one year ago

• Can be used to estimate international migration (events) and migrants (persons)

• No information for people under 1 year old• No residence rules on prior country• Used as proxy for previous country of usual

residence

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Residence One Year Ago and Year of Entry

1574

12181260

1445

1647

1420 1421

11241025

1228

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

(in thousands)

Residence abroad one year ago

‘Year of Entry’ is prior calendar year

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“Residence Abroad One Year Ago”1,124

421703 797

(in thousands)

“Year of Entry Was Prior Calendar Year”

1,218

Only a fraction of people who arrived last year or who resided abroad a year ago report BOTH

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

Total foreign-born population 30,274 31,482 33,049 33,534 34,280"Residence One Year Ago Was Abroad" 1,437 1,428 1,237 1,032 1,124"Year of Entry Was Prior Calendar Year" 1,574 1,647 1,445 1,260 1,218Both Conditions 501 591 545 397 421

Source: American Community Survey

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Survey Year

Lived Abroad 1 year ago

Lived in USA 1 year ago

Year of Arrival

Only half of respondents who arrived during the previous year will report having lived abroad “one year ago”.

The survey will capture only half of potential respondents who arrive during the survey year, all of whom lived abroad one year ago.

Interaction of Three Time Frames: Numerical Year, “One Year Ago”, Survey month

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Conclusion

• Different questions plus different survey design = different interpretation

• Migration questions are complex; often more complex than simple survey questions can capture

• It is difficult to “ask about today” with migration questions

• Nonetheless, the potential data are very rich