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The Comparative Immigrant Entrepreneurship Project (CIEP)
The CIEP survey of over 1,200 Colombian,
Dominican, and Salvadoran family heads is the first to explicitly measure the
extent of economic, political, and socio-cultural transnationalism among
immigrants and to develop predictive models of these activities. The study was designed to examine the
prevalence of transnational entrepreneurship in immigrant
communities and to provide basic information about its empirical
contours and correlates. The research design targeted newer Latin
American immigrant nationalities in their primary areas of
residential concentration in the U.S. and includes questions
concerning the characteristics and regularity of the ties they
maintain with their countries of origin. Specifically, the coverage
includes Colombians in Queens, NY; Dominicans in Washington Heights
(Upper Manhattan) and Providence, RI; and Salvadorans in the
Washington DC metro area (the Adams Morgan section of DC and
Alexandria, Virginia) and Los Angeles (Pico Union).
The sampling
strategy began with establishing contacts randomly in these
communities with key informers to identify the local co-ethnic
entrepreneurs. These points of entry were followed through with a
snowball sample to identify all the ethnic entrepreneurs in each of
these communities. This ensured sufficient coverage of the
entrepreneurs whose business operations depend on maintaining
regular ties to their countries of origin and those who operate
primarily or entirely in the host society. However, these
communities are not populated exclusively by entrepreneurs.
Therefore a two-stage clustered residential sample was implemented.
The first stage identified city blocks as primary sampling units in
these neighborhoods and a simple random sample without replacement
was drawn. Within the primary sampling units the second stage
consisted of a systematic sampling of housing units using either a
one-in-four or a one-in-five sampling fraction. A screener question
for place of birth was asked of the head of household at each
selected residence to determine eligibility. This sampling design
yields equal probability of selection within sampling sites.
Sampling probabilities across sites, however, were not equal due to
differences in the sizes of the immigrant communities within each
site.
Therefore, population weights were developed on the basis of
the 1990 census to correct for 1) unequal sampling probabilities
across sites; and 2) the higher ratio of entrepreneurs to
non-entrepreneurs in the study due to the use of the snowball
sampling techniques. Consistent criteria based on screening
questions were used to identify entrepreneurs (respondents who
indicated they were proprietors of firms or otherwise self-employed
in response to questions about occupation and place of employment)
and also to distinguish transnational entrepreneurs from
entrepreneurs who operate domestically ('The success of my firm
depends on regular contact with foreign countries' and 'The success
of my firm depends on regular contact with [Colombia/Dominican
Republic/El Salvador, according to respondent's country of
origin]). The unweighted sample numbers 1,202 for all sites while
the weights project the unweighted sample to the population sizes of
each immigrant group within its respective U.S. community.
Data Description
The
published files include an explanatory statement of the study, a codebook, and
data files in both SPSS and STATA format readily available for analysis.
Results from CIEP have been published in major sociology journals and in
specialized journals in the field of immigration. However, there is a
great deal of additional information in these files that remains unanalyzed and
that will be of interest to researchers in this field.
Selected Publications
Portes, Alejandro and Josh DeWind. 2004. "A Cross-Atlantic Dialogue: The Progress of Research and Theory in the Study of International Migration." International Migration Review 38 (Fall): 828-851.
Guarnizo, Luis E., Alejandro Portes, and William J. Haller. 2003. "Assimilation and Transnationalism: Determinants of Transnational Political Action among Contemporary Immigrants." American Journal of Sociology 108 (May): 1211-48.
Portes, Alejandro. 2003. "Theoretical Convergencies and Empirical Evidence in the Study of Immigrant Transnationalism." International Migration Review 37 (Fall): 814-892.
Portes, Alejandro, Luis E. Guarnizo and William Haller. 2003. "Assimilation and Transnationalism: Determinants of Transnational Political Action among Contemporary Migrants." American Journal of Sociology 108 (May): 1211-1248.
Itzigsohn, Jose A. and Silvia G. Saucido. 2002. "Immigrant Incorporation and Sociocultural Transnationalism." International Migration Review 36 (Fall): 766-798.
Portes, Alejandro and Patricia Fernandez-Kelly. 2002. "Subversion and Compliance in Transnational Communities." Pp. 167-189 in S. Eckstein and T. Wickham-Crowley (eds.) Struggles for Social Rights in Latin America. New York: Routledge.
Portes, Alejandro, Luis E. Guarnizo, and William Haller. 2002. "Transnational Entrepreneurs: An Alternative Form of Immigrant Economic Adaptation." American Sociological Review (April): 278-298.
Landolt, Patricia. 2001. "Salvadoran Economic Transnationalism: Embedded Strategies for Household Maintenance, Immigrant Incorporation, and Entrepreneurial Expansion." Global Networks 1:217-42.
Portes, Alejandro. 2001. "The Debates and Significance of Immigrant Transnationalism." Global Networks S 1 (July): 181-193.
Guarnizo, Luis E. and Luz M. Diaz. 1999. "Transnational Migration: A View from Colombia." Ethnic and Racial Studies 22 (March): 397-421.
Guarnizo, Luis E., Arturo I. Sanchez, and Elizabeth Roach. 1999. "Mistrust, Fragmented Solidarity, and Transnational Migration: Colombians in New York and Los Angeles." Ethnic and Racial Studies 22 (March): 367-96.
Itzigsohn, Jose, Carlos Dore, Esther Fernandez, and Obed Vazquez. 1999. "Mapping Dominican Transnationalism: Narrow and Broad Transnational Practices." Ethnic and Racial Studies 22 (March): 316-339.
Landolt, Patricia, Lilian Autler, and Sonia Baires. 1999. "From 'Hermano Lejano' to 'Hermano Mayor': The Dialectics of Salvadoran Transnationalism." Ethnic and Racial Studies 22 (March): 290-315.
Portes, Alejandro, Luis E. Guarnizo, and Patricia Landolt (co-editors). 1999. TRANSNATIONAL COMMUNITIES. Special Issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 22 (March).
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