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Understanding Migrant Populations: Study Methods and Challenges in the US-Mexico Border Region

This article provides an overview of studying migrant populations, focusing on the characteristics and challenges faced by migrants, highlighting the diversity, vulnerability, and legal status issues. It discusses study methods including qualitative and quantitative approaches, and strategies for sampling migrant populations such as time-space sampling and respondent-driven sampling. The advantages and disadvantages of these methods are explored, along with recommendations for conducting research on migrant health.

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Understanding Migrant Populations: Study Methods and Challenges in the US-Mexico Border Region

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  1. Studying Migrant PopulationsOverview Alfonso Rodriguez-Lainz, PhD, VMD, MPVM US-Mexico Unit CDC Division of Global Migration and Quarantine 7th Summer Institute on Migration and Global Health June 25-29, 2012

  2. Characteristics of migrants • Lack of standardized definition of migration • Diversity (language, culture, education) • Vulnerable • Minority • Language barriers, SES • Legal status • Multinational exposures

  3. Characteristics of migrants (Cont.) • Mobility (international and within-country) • Rarity (i.e., small % of the general population) • Hidden” (e.g., undocumented; distrust ) • Geographicdispersion and local concentration

  4. Mexican-born population as a percent of total county population, United States Counties, 2006-2010 Total Mexican-born population: 11.7 million (2010)

  5. Chinese born as a % of total county population

  6. Study methods • Qualitative • Quantitative

  7. Qualitative methods • Key informant interviews • Focus groups • Anthropologic methods

  8. Quantitative methods • Sampling surveys • Case-control studies • Longitudinal studies

  9. Challenge: No samplingframe Strategies: Stratifiedoversampling (household and phonesurveys) Time-space sampling Respondent-drivensampling Migrant-Focused Sampling strategies

  10. Oversampling Example Zip codes by % of migranthouseholds High (>20%) Medium (10-19.9%) Low (2-9.9%) Very low (<2%)

  11. Time-SpaceSampling • Somemigrantpopulationstend to gather in certainlocations (or “venues”) at certain times of theyear, weekorday

  12. Time-SpaceSamplingMapping Venues: Example

  13. “Venue-Day-Time Units” Develop one list for each location (venue)

  14. Randomly select Venue-Day-Time Units

  15. Advantages • Goodforstudying: • regularvisitorstospecificcommunitylocations • groupsthatcongregate in accessiblevenues • individualswho are rarely at home • Probabilitysample

  16. Disadvantages • Venues’ enumerationis time and resourceintensive ($$) • Locationsand populationmaychangeover time => needrepeatedenumeration • Individualsmay be sampled more thanonce

  17. Respondent-drivenSampling • A communityisdefinedby social relationships (or “Social Networks”) • Participantsselectedfromthe social network

  18. Respondent-DrivenSampling (RDS) • ImprovementoverSnowballSampling • Strategiestomakeit a probabilitysample and control bias: • Recruitmentquota (e.g., 3) • Estimateparticipants social networksize • Keeptrack of recruiters and recruits • Dual incentive system ($ and peer pressure)

  19. RDS Steps • Define the target population • Identifyinitialnumber of target populationmembers (“seeds”) (e.g., 5-8) • Explainstudy, requestparticipation • Ifaccept, collect data and provide incentive • Eachseedisprovidedwith a smallnumber (e.g.,3) uniquenumberedcouponstorecruitothernetworkmembers

  20. RDS Coupons

  21. RDS Steps (cont.) • Foreach new recruit: • Screentoconfirmmembershipto target population • Explainstudy, requestparticipation • Ifconsent, collect data and provide incentive and coupons (e.g., 3) • Recruiterrecievesanadditional incentive • Repeatprocess • Interview in a convenient place • Continueuntileitherdesiredsamplesize (e.g., 500), or target populationsaturated

  22. RDS: Advantages • It is a probability sampling method • Relatively simple, robust, cheaper and quicker than others • Highly efficient in locating members of a “hidden” or “rare” population • No need for mapping and enumeration

  23. RDS: Disadvantages • It can be management-heavy and expensive • May be difficult to estimate accurately the size of the network for each participant • How representative? • Not suitable for drawing national samples • More complex analysis • Validation studies are underway

  24. Sampling Migrant Populations

  25. General Recommendations • Mixed methods (Quantitative & Qualitative) • Linguistic and culturally appropriate data collection instruments and data collectors • Community-based research • Community leaders • Gain trust • Do not harm • Avoid reinforcing stigma • IRB

  26. Recommendations (Cont.) Disaggregate data (e.g, gender, age, country of birth, time since arrival) Conduct multivariate analysis Conduct multinational migrant health studies (origin and destination countries)

  27. Conclusion • Challenges to migrant research • (Promising) Effective study methods • Critical need for research-based evidence on migrant health • Policy and programs • Eliminate health inequities • Educate the media and public

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