Circular, Invisible, and Ambiguous Migrants

Components of Difference in Estimates of the Number of Unauthorized Mexican Migrants in the United States

Bibliographic Data

ID22839386
AuthorsFrank D Bean (University of California, Irvine, corresponding author), Rodolfo Corona (0000-0002-1052-8736, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte), Rodolfo Tuirán (Secretaría de Ciencia, Humanidades, Tecnología e Innovación), Karen A Woodrow-Lafield (Mississippi State University), Jennifer Van Hook (0000-0002-6982-3422, Bowling Green State University)
Year2001
Volume38
Issue3
Pages411
Publication date2001-08-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDemography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0070-3370 • E-ISSN: 1533-7790
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2307/3088355
OpenAlexW4252892561
LanguageEN
Citations received2

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.

Census · Demographic economics · Econometrics · Economics · Geography · Immigration · Naturalization · Political science · Population · Sociology · Demography · Law · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies

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