Steiner, Ilka and Aljoscha Landös

Surveying Migrants in Europe. Experiences of the Swiss Migration-Mobility Survey
2019

The increasing need for information on immigrants can scarcely be satisfied by traditional population surveys or censuses. Only migrant-specific surveys allow for the integration of migrant-specific topics. However, when organizing a survey targeting immigrants, challenges concerning the survey setup are even more accentuated compared to traditional surveys. After a short introduction, this chapter first reviews the literature on survey methodology when targeting migrant populations. Second, it provides an overview of how specific migrant surveys, which have been undertaken in Europe since the year 2000, have addressed different challenges. Third, and considering the first two chapters, it reviews the implementation of the Migration-Mobility Survey by presenting the target population, the sampling procedure, the survey design and the data collection process and response rates. The chapter closes with a short overview of the main socio-demographic characteristics of the participants, thus serving as a basis for the following chapters of this book, and a short preview of the planned second wave of the Migration-Mobility Survey.