In search of a frame: challenges and opportunities for sampling immigrant minorities

Abstract

When it comes to evaluating immigrants’ integration, survey data are particularly important. However, the endeavor of surveying immigrant minorities is challenging. This special issue focuses on the possibility of obtaining high-quality cross-country comparable samples of immigrant minorities. As the golden standard for drawing random representative samples are the population lists, the contributions of the special issue have directed their attention to this sampling frame. In the three country-based articles, the authors are discussing the legal, administrative and scholarly challenges and opportunities for using population registers as sampling frames for immigrant minorities. The fourth article summarize their findings and concludes that identical register-based sampling design is difficult to implement in a cross-country design, due to the significant differences in the quality of population registers and their accessibility to researchers. The authors suggest that by sampling immigrant minorities in cities, researchers can better implement sampling strategies which result in comparable samples.