Volume 20 - Article 12 | Pages 253–278  

The National Immigrant Survey of Spain. A new data source for migration studies in Europe

By David Reher, Miguel Requena

Abstract

Spain has recently become the destination for large numbers of international migrants and now ranks as a key focal point for international migration in Europe. Currently, approximately one in ten residents in Spain are foreigners, up more than tenfold from figures holding at the outset of this century. Migration has now become a major social and political issue in the country. In order to provide reliable data about migrants in Spain for researchers and policy makers, acting on a proposal of a research team working within the context of the Population and Society Research Network (GEPS), the Spanish Statistical Office has recently carried out an extremely ambitious survey of foreign-born persons currently living in Spain. In the course of the survey, nearly 15,500 persons were interviewed regarding a large array of issues pertaining to their migration experience. Important documentation, including the project report, the methodological specifications of the survey, and the anonymized micro data have recently been made available to the scientific community and to policy makers at the website of the Instituto Nacional de Estadística. The purpose of this paper is to describe this data source, its content, its methodological underpinnings, and the way the fieldwork and data cleaning were carried out. Examples of preliminary results will be presented so as to underscore the potential this survey affords for researchers everywhere.

Author’s Affiliation

• David Reher - Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain EMAIL
• Miguel Requena - Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Spain EMAIL

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

A survey of baby booms and busts in 20th century Spain
Volume 45 - Article 41

Mortality decline and reproductive change during the Dutch demographic transition: Revisiting a traditional debate with new data
Volume 27 - Article 11

Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research

Lowest low fertility in Spain: Insights from the 2018 Spanish Fertility Survey
Volume 51 - Article 19    | Keywords: fertility desires, low fertility, Spain

A multidimensional global migration model for use in cohort-component population projections
Volume 51 - Article 11    | Keywords: age dependency, education, international migration, migration, modelling, population projection, projections

Which definition of migration better fits Facebook ‘expats’? A response using Mexican census data
Volume 50 - Article 39    | Keywords: census data, Facebook, international migration, Mexico, social media

Reducing uncertainty in Delphi surveys: A case study on immigration to the EU
Volume 49 - Article 36    | Keywords: European Union, immigration, international migration, migration flows

Advanced or postponed motherhood? Migrants’ and natives’ gap between ideal and actual age at first birth in Spain
Volume 49 - Article 22    | Keywords: actual age at first birth, age at arrival, fertility, ideal age at first birth, international migration, motherhood, Spain