In quantitative social research, the operational definition of migrant is of critical importance. The foreign birth and foreign citizenship criteria most commonly applied to operationalise migrants in research are neither interchangeable nor mutually exclusive. Moreover, both operational definitions are interconnected with each host country's citizenship policies. Hence, different migrant operationalisations might affect the conclusions drawn in crosssectional and cross-national research. The study uses data from the European Social Survey to explore the potential differentiated impacts of the foreign birth and foreign citizenship criteria on evaluating the relations among migrants residing in two countries with different naturalisation policies, i.e. Greece and Sweden. The results of the analysis conclude that researchers need to be aware of the potential impacts of using different operational definitions of migrants on their research outcomes in order to determine the legitimacy of their findings, which will inform public understanding and policy initiatives. © Common Ground, Stefania Kalogeraki.

Operational definitions Foreign citizenship Foreign birth Migration

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