Abstract
This paper presents a systematic study of survey mechanisms that produce or reduce minority bias in social surveys. It extends the work of Lipps et al. (2011) who have demonstrated that, in the Swiss context, the more an ethno-national minority community differs, socio-culturally and socio-economically, from the national majority, the less it is likely to be represented in its proper proportion in the major national surveys. Minority bias furthermore has a vertical dimension: socio-economic bias against individuals from the most deprived backgrounds becomes extreme within ethno-national minority communities. Using data from the Swiss Labour Force Survey, the Swiss Household Panel, and the Swiss sample of the European Social Survey, in the present work we empirically assess the impact of three types of survey practices on minority bias: (1) strategies to increase overall response rates of the whole population indiscriminately from its minority status, (2) the use of pre- and post-stratification measures that take into account the overall share of foreigners in the national population, and (3) the conduct of interviews in a wider range of languages, in order to facilitate survey response among certain (linguistic) minorities. Our findings show that efforts to increase overall response rates can, paradoxically, create even more minority bias. On the other hand, they suggest that a combination of stratified sampling and a wider range of survey languages can have a positive effect in reducing survey bias, both between and within national categories. We conclude that measures that take into account and adapt to the social and cultural heterogeneity of surveyed populations do make a difference, whereas additional efforts that only replicate existing routine practices can be counter-productive.
Similar content being viewed by others
Abbreviations
- SLFS:
-
Swiss Labour Force Survey
- SHP:
-
Swiss Household Panel
- ESS:
-
European Social Survey
References
Billig M.: Banal Nationalism. Sage, London (1995)
Camarota, S., Capizzano, J.: Assessing the Quality of Data Collected on the Foreign Born: An Evaluation of the American Community Survey (ACS). Technical Report, Center for Immigration Studies, Washington (2004)
Castles S., Miller J.M.: The Age of Migrations. 2nd edn. MacMillan Press Ltd., Basingstoke (1993)
Deding M., Fridberg T., Jakobsen V.: Non-response in a survey among immigrants in Denmark. Surv. Res. Methods 2(3), 107–121 (2008)
Eisner M., Ribeaud D.: Conducting a criminological survey in a cultural diverse context: lessons from the Zurich Project on the social development of children. Eur. J. Criminol. 4(3), 271–298 (2007)
Feskens R., Hox J., Lensvelt-Mulders G., Schmeets H.: Collecting data among ethnic minorities in an international perspective. Field Methods 18(3), 284–304 (2006)
Feskens R., Hox J., Lensvelt-Mulders G., Schmeets H.: Non-response among ethnic minorities: a multivariate analysis. J. Off. Stat. 23(3), 387–408 (2007)
Gross, D.: Immigration policy and foreign population in Switzerland. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3853 (2006)
Groves R.M.: Nonreponse rates and nonresponse bias in household surveys. Public Opin. Q. 70(5), 646–675 (2006)
Jakobsen, V.: Young immigrants from the former Yugoslavia, Turkey and Pakistan: educational attainment, wages and employment. PhD thesis, Department of Economics, Aarhus School of Business, Aarhus (2004)
Koser K., Lutz H.: The new migrations in Europe. Social Construction and Social Realities. MacMillan, London (1998)
Lipps O., Pollien A.: Effects of interviewer experience on components of nonresponse in the European Social Survey. Field Methods. 23(2), 156–172 (2011)
Lipps, O., Laganà, F., Pollien, A., Gianettoni, L.: National minorities and their representation in Swiss surveys (I): Providing evidence and analyzing causes for their under-representation. FORS Working Paper Series, paper 2011–2. FORS, Lausanne (2011)
Nielsen, N.K., Pedersen, S.: Databeskrivelse (in Danish). In: Mogensen, G.V., Matthiesen, P.C. (eds.) Integration i Danmark omkring årtusindeskiftet. The Rockwool Foundation Research Unit, University of Aarhus Publisher, Aarhus (2000)
Peracchi, F., Depalo, D.: Labor market outcomes of natives and immigrants: evidence from the ECHP. Social Protection Discussion Paper No. 0615, World Bank, Washington (2006)
Peytchev A., Baxter R., Carley-Baxter L.: Not all survey effort is equal. Reduction of nonresponse bias and nonresponse error. Public Opin. Q. 73(4), 785–806 (2009)
Piguet E.: L’immigration en Suisse. Cinquante ans d’entreouverture. Presses Polytechniques et Universitaires Romandes, Lausanne (2004)
Plaza S., Graf E.: Reccomandations et Exemples Pratiques Concernant l’application des Pondérations. Panel Suisse de Manages, Neuchâtel (2007)
Plaza, S., Graf, E.: Executive summary. Recommendations and practical examples for using weighting. FORS, Lausanne (2008)
Widmer R.F.: L’enquête Suisse sur la Population Active, Concepts—Bases Méthodologiques, Considérations Pratiques. Office Fédérale de la Statistique, Neuchâtel (2004)
Wimmer A., Schiller N.: Methodological nationalism and beyond: nation state building, migration and the social sciences. Glob. Netw. 2(4), 301–334 (2002)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Laganà, F., Elcheroth, G., Penic, S. et al. National minorities and their representation in social surveys: which practices make a difference?. Qual Quant 47, 1287–1314 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-011-9591-1
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-011-9591-1