Government Data in Migration Research: Advantages, Pitfalls, and Examples

CCIS/CSIM Workshop May 20, 2022
Workshop Leaders: Austin Kocher, Caitlin Patler, and Alicia Riley
In this panel, we will discuss the use of US government data in migration research. We will begin with a discussion of the data available through the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University, broadly known as the main clearinghouse for government data on migration research. Dr. Kocher will describe TRAC's processes, the epistemological issues with how government knowledge is produced, and various applications of the work in both academic work and in the real world. Dr. Patler will then discuss her experiences submitting FOIA requests to ICE and CBP as an individual academic, as well as partnerships with non-academic entities who have gathered data via FOIA, and present examples from that work. Dr. Pedroza will discuss the trade-offs between survey and administrative data to study immigration-related questions at the individual versus place level. There will be plenty of time for discussion and brainstorming student projects. Dr. Riley will share about using government vital statistics data (birth certificate and death certificate data) to identify individuals by their country of birth.