Leveraging census data to study migration flows in Latin America and the Caribbean: an assessment of the available data sources

Julieta Bengochea Soria, Emanuele Del Fava, Victoria Prieto Rosas and Emilio Zagheni
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Julieta Bengochea Soria: Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany
Emanuele Del Fava: Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany
Victoria Prieto Rosas: Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany
Emilio Zagheni: Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany

No WP-2021-019, MPIDR Working Papers from Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany

Abstract: Although the scarcity of accurate and accessible data on international migration flows typically prevents a full understanding of migratory patterns, this might not be the case for Latin America, where high-quality census data on migrant flows is publicly available through the project International Migration in Latina America (IMILA). However, such data has mostly been used for research at the regional level because of the fragmented nature of their availability and the lack of English documentation. To tackle this issue, we consolidated data from the IMILA collection to provide a harmonized dataset with five-year flows by country of birth, sex, and age group, for 19 countries of destination and five census waves. Moreover, comparing IMILA to other two available data sources on flows to Latin America, we showed that IMILA provides a more accurate assessment of migration flows from North America and Europe, enables a better quantification of minor migration flows, and enhances the visibility of female migration.

Keywords: Argentina; Bolivia; Brazil; Chile; Costa Rica; Dominican Republic; Ecuador; Guatemala; Honduras; Mexico; Paraguay; Uruguay; census data; data collection; data comparability; international migration; migration flow (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J1 Z0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22 pages
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int, nep-lam, nep-mig and nep-ure
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2021-019

DOI: 10.4054/MPIDR-WP-2021-019

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