Surveying Migrant Households: A Comparison of Census-Based, Snowball, and Intercept Point Surveys

44 Pages Posted: 6 Dec 2007

See all articles by David J. McKenzie

David J. McKenzie

World Bank - Development Research Group (DECRG); IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Johan A. Mistiaen

The World Bank

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: November 2007

Abstract

Few representative surveys of households of migrants exist, limiting our ability to study the effects of international migration on sending families. We report the results of an experiment designed to compare the performance of three alternative survey methods in collecting data from Japanese-Brazilian families, many of whom send migrants to Japan. The three surveys conducted were 1) Households selected randomly from a door-to-door listing using the Brazilian Census to select census blocks; 2) A snowball survey using Nikkei community groups to select the seeds; and 3) An intercept point survey collected at Nikkei community gatherings, ethnic grocery stores, sports clubs, and other locations where family members of migrants are likely to congregate. We analyze how closely well-designed snowball and intercept point surveys can approach the much more expensive census-based method in terms of giving information on the characteristics of migrants, the level of remittances received, and the incidence and determinants of return migration.

Keywords: migration, surveys, rare elements, intercept-point

JEL Classification: C42, O12

Suggested Citation

McKenzie, David John and Mistiaen, Johan A., Surveying Migrant Households: A Comparison of Census-Based, Snowball, and Intercept Point Surveys (November 2007). IZA Discussion Paper No. 3173, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1039401 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1039401

David John McKenzie (Contact Author)

World Bank - Development Research Group (DECRG) ( email )

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Johan A. Mistiaen

The World Bank ( email )

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HOME PAGE: http://econ.worldbank.org/staff/jmistiaen

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