1. Sampling international migrants with origin-based snowballing method. New evidence on biases and limitations
- Author
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Amparo González-Ferrer, Cris Beauchemin, European Commission, González Ferrer, Amparo [0000-0002-6492-6641], Institut national d'études démographiques (INED), Instituto de Economía, Geografía y Demografía, Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales CSIC, European Project: 217206,EC:FP7:SSH,FP7-SSH-2007-1,MAFE(2008), and González Ferrer, Amparo
- Subjects
jel:Z0 ,SAMPLES ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Snowballing ,Sample (statistics) ,[SHS.DEMO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Demography ,Representativeness heuristic ,migration research methods ,Survey methodology ,State (polity) ,0502 economics and business ,Development economics ,international migration ,050602 political science & public administration ,Regional science ,Transnational Surveys ,050207 economics ,Sampling ,International Migrants ,Demography ,media_common ,FAMILY_RELATIONS ,Data collection ,STANDARD_OF_LIVING ,Poverty ,05 social sciences ,MAFE survey ,1. No poverty ,MAFE ,INTERNATIONAL_MIGRATION ,Senegal ,0506 political science ,Europe ,jel:J1 ,Geography ,EUROPEAN_UNION ,lcsh:HB848-3697 ,Work (electrical) ,international migration, sampling, survey methodology ,8. Economic growth ,Africa ,snowball-sampling ,lcsh:Demography. Population. Vital events ,Construct (philosophy) ,METHODOLOGY - 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 overrepresents 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.
- Published
- 2011
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