Evaluation of Migration between Mexico and the U.S. Estimated from a Border Survey: The 1993-2003 EMIF

Michael Rendall, RAND Corporation
Emma Aguila, RAND Corporation
Ricardo Basurto-Davila, RAND Corporation

A number of specialist surveys have been fielded in Mexico allowing in-depth insights about the Mexico-U.S. migration process. Only two surveys, however, have been fielded with the frequency and regularity to allow for the analysis of change in the migration process, the Mexican Migration Project (MMP) and the Survey of Migration at the North Border of Mexico (EMIF). While the EMIF is much less exploited in the scholarly literature in the U.S., its sample design allows for a claim of fuller coverage of migrant flows both to and from the U.S. than the MMP. Our main objective in this paper is to evaluate the EMIF against emigration and return migration data in national household surveys and censuses in Mexico and in the U.S. We then apply the 1993-2003 EMIF data to the estimation of first emigration to the U.S. and duration of stay.