Introduction

Our review of survey experiences that include immigrant populations has offered important insights into the methodological challenges involved in these surveys and the possible research strategies that can be developed to deal with them. There are significant lessons that can be drawn from this diverse set of experiences with surveys from seven countries, each of which had different objectives and resources. To discuss them, we divide our conclusions into the same two main areas mentioned in the introduction. First, we will deal with issues related to the definition of the target group and to sampling design and, secondly, with fieldwork issues.

Within both of these sections we will look at the reality of surveys of immigrants as well as surveys of the general population that include immigrants. Several specific aspects will be analysed. First, we will compare the methodological strategies followed by the different surveys covered in the book (providing occasional comparisons with cases not included here). Second, we will discuss the extent to which the differences that appear among these surveys are due to contextual differences (differing immigration realities, differences in resources available, etc.). We will see if there is a clear-cut best set of practices and recommendations that can be followed by any researcher preparing an immigrant survey or, alternatively, whether things are more complex and all we can do is identify the different possible avenues that can be chosen depending on the specific circumstances of each particular survey. In order to do so, we will mostly concentrate on the ideas from this book, but we will also establish a dialogue with the ideas and strategies put forward by other researchers.

Deciding on the target population, sampling frames and sampling strategies

Three main aspects of the design of any survey will be discussed in this section: the definition of the target population, the selection of groups to be interviewed and finally, the sampling frames and sampling strategies used in order to build representative samples of the populations to be studied.

The target population

The definition of who constitutes the target population of a survey depends very much on the aims of the survey, but also on a basic contextual factor, namely, the existing data; that is, the administrative records of the immigrant population and how their status is registered.