Cris Beauchemin
Amparo González-Ferrer

http://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol25/3/

doi:10.4054/DemRes.2011.25.3

	Click the icon to view and/or download the PDF file. Once you are in the PDF file, use your browser back button to return to this page.

Abstract

This paper provides a methodological assessment of the advantages and drawbacks of the origin-based snowballing technique as a reliable method to construct representative samples of international migrants in destination areas. Using data from the MAFE-Senegal Project, our results indicate that this is a very risky method in terms of quantitative success. Besides, it implies some clear selection biases: it over-represents migrants more strongly connected to their home country, and it tends to overestimate both poverty in households at origin and the influence of previous migration experiences of social networks on individuals’ out-migration.

Author's affiliation
Cris Beauchemin
Institut national d´études démographiques (INED), France
Amparo González-Ferrer
Spanish Council for Scientific Research, Spain

Keywords
international migration, sample, survey methodology

Word count (Main text)
10982

Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research

	[26-5] Sampling and Surveying Hard-to-Reach Populations for Demographic Research: A Study of Female Labor Migrants in Moscow, Russia (survey methodology)
	[25-24] The effects of integration and transnational ties on international return migration intentions (international migration)
	[24-26] Reproductive contributions of Taiwan´s foreign wives from the top five source countries (international migration)
	[20-31] Subjective expectations in the context of HIV/AIDS in Malawi (survey methodology)
	[20-12] The National Immigrant Survey of Spain. A new data source for migration studies in Europe (international migration)

[ Back to previous page ]