Design
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Selecting Communities
++ The process of selecting communities for the Mexican Migration has traditionally relied on + anthropological methods. Communities are chosen after a personal reconnaissance of the + geographic area to be studied by the principal investigators. Because the project + initially focused on Western Mexico, the traditional heartland for migration to the United + States, practically all of the earliest communities had significant indices of + out-migration, which could easily be detected using field interviews and simple + observations of the frequency of new homes, foreign license plates, currency exchanges, + and international courier services. +
++ Until 2000, we lacked access to a valid measure to indicate the intensity of emigration + from specific municipalities and the only measure indicating migration was the sex + ratio. The only demographic fact regularly considered was the community's sex ratio, + which offer general picture of the intensity of the process of international migration + because in Mexico emigration is so heavily male. After an initial round of fieldwork, + investigators compared their preliminary data with census statistics and formation + available from bibliographic sources. However, the MMP has never explicitly sought to + survey only communities with high rates of out-migration. Investigators simply seek to + corroborate that there is some migration from the community in question before + proceeding. Then they select four specific locations to represent each of four levels of + urbanization: +
+ +Ranchos
+fewer than 2,500 inhabitants
+Pueblos (Towns)
+2,500 to 10,000 inhabitants
+Mid-sized Cities
+10,000 to 100,000 inhabitants
+Large City
++ usually a particular neighborhood within in a state's capital city +
++ In the pueblos and ranchos, investigators conduct a complete census of dwellings and + undertake random selection from the resulting list. In mid-sized cities and urban + metropolises, investigators generally chose a traditional, well-established + neighborhood–one not dominated by recent rural-urban migrants. As a result, the urban + samples are in reality samples of urban neighborhoods or specifically demarcated quarters. + In all cases, the neighborhood must have at least 1,200 enumerated dwellings, from which a + random sample of 200 is taken. +
++ The methodology of the MMP thus yields results with a high degree of representativeness at + the community level, and in some of the smaller pueblos and ranchos investigators have + been able to survey every household in the community. Given that the sample is not + targeted to migrants per se, but surveys the community as a whole, the project needs a + fairly large sample size to generate a significant number of migrants. Traditional methods + of cluster sampling generally survey small numbers of respondents across a large number of + areas, but this generally yields small numbers of migrants to study an inability to make + generalizations at the community level. For example, rather than interviewing 20 + households in five communities we interview 100 households in one community, thereby + enabling us to make generalizations about migratory processes at the community level. If + the frequency of migration is 30%, on average the surveys would contain only six migrants + in each of the five communities, rather than 30 migrants in one community. +
++ At present we are able to draw upon an index of migratory developed for municipalities in + Mexico’s National Population Council (CONAPO) based on the 2000 and 2010 census. This + index provides reliable information about the level of U.S. migration prevailing at the + municipal level and is particularly useful in identifying new communities of origin for + migrants in new sending states, where heretofore little information has been available. In + sum, after 25 years of field experience, the MMP continues to use anthropological criteria + for selecting communities, which are then corroborated with available data from the census + and other sources to confirm the existence of migrants before making the final selection. +
+Ethnosurvey
++ The Ethnosurvey is eclectic and draws on methods and approaches well-known in sociology, + anthropology, psychology, and education. Its contribution and complexity lies in the way + all these methods are combined within a single study. The main idea for the Ethnosurvey is + “to complement qualitative and quantitative procedures, so one's weakenesses become the + other's strength, yielding a body of data with greater reliability and more internal + validity than is possible to achieve using either method alone.” (Massey 1987). +
++ The Ethnosurvey contains a series of tables that are organized around a particular topic, + giving coherence to the “conversation”. It follows a semi structured format to generate an + interview schedule that is flexible, unobtrusive and non-threatening. It requires that + identical information be obtained for each person, but questions, wording and ordering are + not fixed. The precise phrasing and timing of each query is left to the judgment of the + interviewer, depending on circumstances. +
++ In addition, the Ethnosurvey is explicitly designed to provide quantitative data for + multi-level analysis by compiling data at the individual, household, and community levels. + Detailed community-level data are compiled at the time of the survey by the fieldwork + supervisor; these data are of great help to interpret the socioeconomic context within + which individuals and households interact (Massey 1987). This small questionnaire is + referred to as the Community Data Inventory. +
+Interview Process
++ The questionnaires are applied in three phases. In the first phase, basic social and + demographic data are collected from all members of the household. The interview begins by + identifying the household head and systematically enumerating the spouse and children, + beginning with the oldest. All children of the head are listed on the questionnaire + whether or not they live at home, but if a son or daughter is a member of another + household, this fact is recorded. A child is considered to be living in a separate + household if he or she is married, maintains a separate house or kitchen, and organizes + expenses separately. After listing the head, spouse, and children, other household members + are identified and their relationship to the head clarified. +
+Phase 1
++ A particularly important task in the first phase of the questionnaire is the + identification of people with prior migrant experience in either the United States or + Mexico. For those individuals with migrant experience the interviewer records the + total number of U.S. trips, as well as information about the first and most recent + U.S. trips, including the year, duration, destination, U.S. occupation, legal status, + and hourly wage. This exercise is then repeated for first and most recent migrations + within Mexico. +
+Phase 2
++ The second phase of the ethnosurvey questionnaire compiles a year-by-year life history + for all household heads, including a childbearing history, a property history, a + housing history, a business history, and a labor history. The goal of this phase is to + capture occupational mobility, health status, migration history, and family formation. +
+Phase 3
++ The third and final phase of the questionnaire gathers information about the household + head's experiences on his or her most recent trip to the United States, including the + mode of border-crossing, the kind and number of accompanying relatives, the kind and + number of relatives already present in the United States, the number of social ties + that had been formed with U.S. citizens, English language ability, job + characteristics, and use of U.S. social services. +
+Data Coding/Weights
+Data Coding and File Construction
++ After the ethnosurvey questionnaires are completed and revised, data are entered in + Mexico. The entry programs perform initial screening, range checks, and simple tests for + logical consistency. The preliminary files are then transferred to Princeton University, + where additional data cleaning is performed, numeric codes are assigned to occupations + and places, and the final data sets are assembled into six primary data files, each + providing a unique perspective of Mexican migrants, their families, and their + experiences. SIX primary files have been created, each corresponding to a different unit + of analysis: PERS, MIG, MIGOTHER, HOUSE, LIFE and SPOUSE. Data at the community level + have been compiled in the file: COMMUN. +
+Weights
++ The MMP database provides community- and sample-specific weights. For each community, + you will see a single weight for all the households in the home country sample and + another weight for all the households in the US sample. +
++ When working with pooled data from multiple communities, these weights give you the + option to adjust your estimates in order to take into account the relative sizes of all + the sampling frames. Whether you will need to weight your estimates or not will depend + on what your goal is. +
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