Title:	Estimating Characteristics of the Foreign Born by Legal Status
Authors:	Dean H. Judson • David A. Swanson
Keywords:	Legal Status
Issue Date:	2011
Publisher:	Springer
Description:	This paper starts with a general background regarding issues associated with measuring the foreign born and immigration before describing population estimation techniques. It then describes methods for estimating the foreign-born, including residual methods, administrative records methods, specialized survey methods, and methods that do not fit neatly into the preceding categories. Following the evaluations of these methods are suggestions in regard to data and methods, that could be used to generate regular estimates of the foreign-born by legal status. The paper notes that there is no gold standard for evaluating methods for estimating the foreign-born, which means they cannot be subjected to the standard evaluation process used for the general methods of population estimation. Thus, the selection of methods is based on criteria other than accuracy. These include cost and time- liness, and transparency, among others. The paper concludes with a general recommendation that a ‘‘direct’’ measure of the foreign-born population be developed, and discusses three possibilities: (1) a large scale ‘‘two-card’’ survey be funded and implemented by a non-governmental entity that has the experience and human capital to implement such a survey, (2) an attempt to use existing data sources to cluster or perform a latent class analysis to assign legal status, and (3) an imputation model based on a survey that asks a question on legal status.
URI:	http://10.6.20.12:80/handle/123456789/56147
ISBN:	978-94-007-1272-0
Appears in Collections:	Population Studies

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