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Sociology 310: Mobility and Migration

Who am I and why should you care?• Dawn Stahura

• I’m your Sociology Librarian/Liaison/Superhero

• Statistics and Government information on the country you have chosen.

Who are you? What’s your country?

• LANGUAGE! How I traveled from Italy to Japan in twenty minutes.

• SOC 310 Libguide (all the resources at your fingertips!)

Numerical Terminology

Data: refers to individual numbers, like the original computer file of all the numerically coded responses to a survey.

• Looks like a series of numbers. This is a DATA FILE, usually called a DATA SET.

• Data are actual values. One value in a data set is a data point.

• When you process data, grouping the data points and expressing them as percentages, then you have STATISTICS.

Statistics: groups of numbers, usually expressed in terms of percentages.

“Almost 9 million (data) young Americans, or about 15 percent (statistic) of all children, are overweight.”

Statistics are easier to find.

But if you want to analyze a series of values, then you want a DATA SET.

Collection of Numbers

When thinking about a numerical question, consider whether or not it would be worth someone’s time to collect the information and make it available in a way that is useful.

It is costly to collect, analyze, and interpret data.

So think about what type of information you want to find about immigrants and then consider whether or not someone would be interested in collecting that data, and WHO it might be.

Who Collects Numbers?

In the United States, the U.S. Government is probably the largest collector and publisher of “numbers.” This is true of other developed countries.

These organizations are termed the “public sector” and usually the information they make available is free (tax dollars at work).

The private sector, comprises of trade or business organizations, professional associations, market research companies, and polling and surveying organizations.

Usually information produced by the private sector is NOT free, although some trade and professional groups may provide some statistics on their websites.

Categories of Numbers

• People population counts, demographics (race, income), immigration and migration, and vital statistics (births, deaths).

• Business broad information about business such as numbers of companies, production, and workers in various industries, as well as numbers related to doing business (market research, or sales figures for a particular company).

• Financial “business numbers” that are financial in nature (historical stock prices), money or monetary equivalents (stocks), information such as the GDP, banking data (total currency in circulation, total value of money in savings accounts), exchange rates, and aggregate numbers associated with stock markets (Dow Jones Industrial Averages).

**Knowing where your “number question” fits into one of these categories will help you decide what agency collects these numbers.**

So what’s the problem with immigration statistics?

Lack of consensus between countries on what defines a “migrant” meaning it is hard to pull that information from existing datasets.

No international coordination of data collection methodologies and standardization of immigrant identifiers.

Data access needs to be the top priority of the data collection. No restricting access to the information.

Lack of interest on the side of the officials responsible.

Do not collect “out-migration” or undocumented migration.

Migration is dynamic! (temporary v. permanent, transnationally v. nationally, return to country or origin or move between two or more countries…)

Key places to look for immigration data:

• Start with MPI. Look at country profile. Read information. Where else can you go?

• Governments around the World Find which department handles immigration for your country.

• Offstats Can search by country and subject.

• EUROSTATSBroad range of characteristics of migrants living in the European Union.

***Keep in mind that not every country will do a stellar job at making it easy to find statistics. Don’t get discouraged, Dig!***

United Nations Population Division:

Under “Publications”, we can view the entire 2009 report of “International Migration.” Just search for your country in the pdf.

Under “Trends in International Migrant Stock (age & sex), we can view The World Migrant Stock plus view specific country profiles.

Under “International Migration Flows to and from Selected Countries,” there is excellent information under “Sources” which tells you where the United Nations found immigration information.

As a last resort…

If you are having problems locating which government agencies handle immigration, try Googling your country’s demographics.

Wikipedia will probably come up first. That’s okay. You can use the “references” section to get ideas!

For information on policy and social reception of immigrants:

• SocINDEX Read the abstracts. Look for full-text, limit to peer-reviewed,

scholarly content.

• PAIS Public Affairs Information Service -- political science articles.

There are other databases listed on the libguide for you to use as well!

**Keywords you could try: conflict, tension, fear, attitudes, welcome, reception

Questions? Help?

• I’m available for one-on-one consultations.

Email, Google chat, visit the help desk, phone me.

Good luck on your research projects!