Unauthorized Migration Estimates in the UK and US

How are estimates of undocumented migration made? Here’s an important lecture on the topic:

‘Just the Facts’: Official Reports, Mass Media, and the Politics of Unauthorized Migration Estimates in the United Kingdom and the United States
Jennifer Blakeslee
Ph.D. Candidate in Demography, Australian National University; Visiting Fellow, CCIS
Tuesday, March 4, 3:00-5:00 p.m.
Eleanor Roosevelt College Administration Building
Conference Room 115, First Floor
Reception to follow

The production and dissemination of statistical and demographic information has increased significantly in the last decade given advancements in information technology. As such, numbers have become more powerful and political than when The Politics of Numbers (1987) was released two decades ago—for few subjects has this been more apparent than unauthorized migration.  Using content analysis of mass media, internet sources, congressional/parliamentary transcripts, and a short survey of demographic professionals working on immigration-related topics, this paper tracks and analyzes estimates of 
unauthorized migrant populations issued in high profile UK (2004/05) and US (2005/06) reports. Rather than assessing the validity of statistical techniques, the paper examines the numbers within the public discourse, focusing on the relationship among quantitative information on unauthorized migration, its production, the mass media, public opinion and political power in the United Kingdom and the United States. More specifically, the paper asks: What do ‘the
facts’ mean and to whom? How do differing modes of presentation color the debate over immigration?
Jennifer Blakeslee is a doctoral candidate in Demography and Sociology at the Australian National University and a visiting fellow at CCIS. Her doctoral research–Consuming illegality: migration, labor and agriculture into the 21st century—investigates contradictions between economic and immigration policies in Spain and the United States, focusing on labor demand in the fruit, vegetable and horticultural industry and the evolution of the global labor market. She is currently working on a project examining Romanian migration to Spain and Italy with the Center for Demographic and Social Change at Kansas State University. She has a B.A. from UC Santa Cruz in Asian and Economic History (1996) and M.A.s in Demography (2003) and International Law (2004) from the Australian National University. She has also worked on Complex Systems applications with the Santa Fe Institute (2004) and was a visiting researcher at Oxford University (2005).

bh