ESRA 2027 sessions by theme

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Sampling hard-to-reach populations remains a major concern in survey research, with migrant groups as a notable example of such a population. This challenge has been addressed by utilizing both probabilistic and non-probabilistic research designs that focus on specific sub-populations, often with a local emphasis. With very few notable exceptions, a significant gap in studying migrant populations with survey methods is the lack of comparison with the native population. This comparison is crucial for understanding the differences and similarities between the groups.

To address this gap, one main approach has been to refer to subsamples of people of foreign origin within general population survey samples. While this strategy has several advantages, it also presents several drawbacks. These include the small sample sizes for such populations, potential selection bias leading to the under-representation of specific migrant groups, and the variety of sampling frames, which often stems from differing availability and composition of population lists across contexts. This issue is particularly relevant in comparative research.

Building on these considerations, this session welcomes papers that focus on strategies for including subsamples of migrants in general population samples, as well as strategies designed for studying migrant populations that can be easily transferred to designs targeting the general population. We invite contributions that address specific techniques (e.g., oversampling techniques, onomastic procedures, focused enumeration), those that offer methodological insights concerning issues related to population coverage, lists, different response rates between natives and migrants, and spatial segregation, and those that assess and discuss the quality of subsamples of migrants in international and national population surveys.