Population Center Resources: (Im)migration Data Sets Introduction
Overview
The Gateway to the Immigration Datasets provides researchers, scholars and students with an extensive list of survey and census datasets that contain variables relevant to the study of immigration and immigrants. This inventory of datasets aims to provide scholars of immigration and immigrants with a single place to identify useful sources of empirical data and to encourage others to incorporate immigration variables and concepts into their analysis. It is organized by region, and general content areas.
Using the Gateway to Immigration Datasets
There are three ways to use this resource.
- You can click here to reach a global map for identifying datasets by region.
- Search by topic by clicking on the appropriate link:
- Download an Excel file
(migrationdataset_sortable.xls) that and will allow you to
sort according to a preferred variable or
other criterion. The criteria fields are: Place of birth, migration status, year of entry, citizenship, language, remittances, attitudes regarding migrants and immigration, transnational activities, region, year of survey, first and second years of longitudinal or panel surveys, whether the survey covers multiple years, and whether it is panel (same respondents tracked). The worksheet and also the webpages in this section contain brief descriptions of datasets and weblinks for further information or to access data (outside the BPC website). This spreadsheet contains all of the information found in the two methods mentioned.
Caveats
BPC cannot help with data downloads or analysis. The datasets listed all feature migration-related variables, but also include a myriad of other variables relevant to population studies. We may have missed other useful datasets. If so, please let us know!
Datasets vary by ease of access. Some require free web registration or instant access while others require mailing a signed agreement. Some data are accessible mainly through academic institutions; some may come with fees for non-academics.
Formats of available datasets also vary. Some are available in multiple formats such as SAS, STATA and SPSS; others are only be available in one package or in another format such as ASCII or an Excel file. Updates to studies in this list may not be included here.Acknowledgements
The Gateway’s creation was made possible by a Berkeley Population Center grant to Professor Irene Bloemraad’s Interdisciplinary Immigration Workshop. [http://www.iir.berkeley.edu/immigration] Thanks to Catherine Barry, for assembling the list of datasets; and Casondra Sobieralski and Leora Lawton for web design.
Please report updates, problems or suggestions to popcenter@demog.berkeley.edu