Immigration Research Guide

Harvard libraries focus their data collections on economic and financial information, public opinion and survey polls, health data, inter-governmental organizations' (IGO) data, U.S. and foreign census data, and statistical compendia from the U.S. and foreign governments.

On this page, we've highlighted data e-resources and web resources that may be useful for your research on immigration -- but these are just the tip of the data iceberg.

A great many of the statistical material available to you here will still be in print or CD-ROM formats. Like other library items, statistical publications are identified by searching HOLLIS.  Adding a word like "statistics" or "data" to your other search terms can sometimes help surface this information.

Data searching often requires considerable digging, and -- especially when you are working with raw numbers (microlevel information) -- the mediation of a librarian with data expertise can save you time (and frustration).  Data questions should be sent to this address: govdocs@fas.harvard.edu. 

If you need help with other aspects of your data research such as coding, presenting, or managing, have a look at some of the links on the Research Resource Reservoir.

Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
One of the world’s oldest and largest social science data archives; based at the University of Michigan. Categories of datasets include census enumerations; community and urban studies; economic behavior and attitudes; government structures, policies and capabilities; social indicators; and much more.  You will need to create an ICPSR account from a campus computer to download datasets.

Harvard Dataverse:  Access the world's largest collection of social science research data by searching across or browsing through one of the virtual data archives (called "dataverses"). The Dataverse provides access to Harvard's Murray Research Archive, as well as other large data collections including:  ICPSR, NARA (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration),  and The DataWeb (U.S. Census Bureau). Data can be downloaded if permissions allow and, in some cases, subset for analysis.

Migration Policy Institute Data Hub. For more details, including country-level migration data, methodology, data assumptions and caveats, visit Migration and Remittances Factbook 2011.

Statistics

• Migration Data Hub:  an independent, non-partisan think-tank in Washington DC,  MPI provides analysis, development, and evaluation of migration and refugee policies at the local, national, and international levels. The Data Hub showcases the most current national and state-level demographic, social, and economic facts about immigrants to the US; as well as stock, flow, citizenship, net migration, and historical data for countries in Europe, North America, and Oceania.

• OECD iLibrary: provides online access to the many publications and databases, including an international migration statistics database, put out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Publications include country studies, forecasting publications, reports, periodicals, and socio-economic databases.  Topics covered include agriculture, developing economies, education, employment, energy, environment, migration, social issues, and sustainable development.

• Office of Immigration Statistics, U.S. Department of Homeland Security: provides official statistics on US immigration and naturalization.

• ProQuest Statistical Insight: this database compiles its contents -- on an endless variety of measurable topics -- from the statistical publications of 200 federal agencies, 50 state governments, 100 international intergovernmental organizations, and 500 private and academic sources. Materials published before 2000, when they are not available in full-text directly through this e-resource, can generally be accessed in print or microfiche in Government Documents, on Level B in Lamont Library. 

• Social Explorer: provides access to current and historical census data for the United States, which can be displayed as reports or maps.  Currently, this e-resource contains data from 1790 to the present.  Questions on ancestry, place of birth and much more are included.

• United Nations Statistics Division - International Migration: the UNSD is responsible at the international level for collecting and disseminating official national data on international migration. Topics include international migration flows, labor migration statistics, asylum seekers and refugees and more. Other useful UN Statistics resources are listed on our UN Research Guide.

• US Census Bureau - Foreign Born: provides statistics on the foreign born population in the US.  It will provide you with an overall picture of the US population.

• World Bank Databases: provides access to a wide range of World Bank data including World Development Indicators,Global Bilateral Migration Database, Measuring Brain Drain by Gender, Migration and Remittances Factbook, and Panel Data on International Migration 1975-2000.  Other World Bank data includes social, economic, financial, natural resources, and environmental indicators.

Public Opinion

• Americas Barometer: also known as the Latin American Public Opinion Project, this e-resource provides access to the data from regularly conducted, multi-country surveys of democratic values and behaviors in the Americas. Surveys have measured system support, political tolerance, citizen participation, local government, corruption, and views on authoritarianism for the Americas. Coverage begins in 2004.

• Eurobarometer:  large set of surveys measuring public opinion in the countries of the European Union, on a wide variety of topics. Also see the Mannheim Eurobarometer Trend File and Eurobarometer Question Search which allows you to find if and when a topic was covered. Also includes a topical guide. Data is available through ICPSR and GESIS-ZACAT which includes a large number of EuroBarometer surveys and others and allows online analysis as well as access to microdatafiles (free registration is required).

• General Social Survey:  one of the nation's longest running surveys of social, cultural and political indicators.  The General Social Survey (GSS) conducts basic scientific research on the structure and development of American society with a data-collection program designed to both monitor social change within the United States and to the United States to other nations.

• Gallup Brain: a searchable compendium of U.S. public opinion data, together with questionnaires, collected since 1935. 

• International Social Survey Programme:  cross-national collaboration on social science surveys in 48 countries.  Topics include Social Networks, National Identity and Citizenship.

• Pew Social and Demographic Trends: studies behaviors and attitudes of Americans in key realms of their lives, including family, community, health, finance, work and leisure. Includes datasets on aging, immigration, mobility, gender, middle class, race, marriage, parenthood, Muslim Americans, personal finance, social trust, work, optimism, cars, and family bonds.

• Polling the Nations:  a compilation of more than 14,000 surveys conducted by over 1000 polling organizations in the United States and 100 other countries from 1986 to the present time.Each record provides a question asked and the responses given. Also included is the polling organization responsible for the poll, the sample size and the date the poll was released.

• Roper Center for Public Opinion: provides access to summary-level (aggregate) and micro-level (raw) public opinion data. While the data collection focuses strongly on summary level United States public opinion (iPoll), it also includes growing collections of micro-level  European, Latin American (Latin American Databank) and Japanese (JPOLL) public opinion.  The Roper Center resources require users to set up (free) individual accounts in order to gain access to the data.  

• World Values Survey:  national surveys of individuals' values and beliefs in more than 65 societies; builds on the European Values Surveys, first carried out in 1981.  The complete aggregate dataset covers the six waves of the Values Surveys and is available in several formats.  Free registration is required to download the data.  Online data analysis is also available.