Demography
Volume 38, Issue 3, 2001, Pages 411-422

Circular, invisible, and ambiguous migrants: Components of difference in estimates of the number of unauthorized Mexican migrants in the United States (Article)

Bean F.D.* , Corona R. , Tuiran R. , Woodrow-Lafield K.A. , Van Hook J.
  • a University of California at Irvine, 3151 Social Science Plaza, Irvine, CA 92697-5100, United States
  • b Colegio de la Frontera Norte, Tijuana, Mexico
  • c Consejo Nacional de Población, Mexico, Mexico
  • d [Affiliation not available]
  • e [Affiliation not available]

Abstract

Based on an equation that can be used with available data and that provides a basis for facilitating decomposition analyses, this research estimates that about 2.54 million total (as opposed to enumerated) unauthorized Mexicans resided in the United States in 1996. Comparing this figure with an estimate of about 2.70 million released by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) during the 1990s, we find that the two estimates involve different assumptions about circular, invisible, and ambiguous migrants. Such differences not only can have important policy implications; they can also be sizable and can operate in opposite directions, as illustrated by findings from a components-of-difference analysis. The results are also extrapolated to 2000, and implications for 2000 census counts are discussed.

Author Keywords

[No Keywords available]

Index Keywords

male female Emigration and Immigration Transients and Migrants statistics Mexico Hispanic Americans Article Population Surveillance United States human Humans migration Hispanic health survey
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-0035430991&partnerID=40&md5=a96a2cdee55285b2b5f67f7695f1b6bf
ISSN: 00703370
Cited by: 43
Original Language: English