New Strategies in Estimating International Migration

Betsy Guzman, U.S. Census Bureau
Kevin Deardorff, U.S. Census Bureau
Alexa Kennedy-Puthoff, U.S. Census Bureau

After Census 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau pursued new strategies in estimating international migration. As a result of these new strategies, our estimate of net international migration increased from slightly more than 800,000 annually to around 1.4 million annually. In this paper, we evaluate the reasons for these differences in the estimates of net international migration, and consider the influence of methodological changes and new data sources on the estimates produced. We discuss improvements to the methodology, as well as strengths and weaknesses of the data sources employed. Finally, we outline research activities that will lead to better estimates of the size of net international migration.