An Integrated Approach to Surveying Emigrants Worldwide

This chapter describes the research design applied in the research project The Emigrant Communities of Latvia: National Identity, Transnational Relations and Diaspora Politics, which forms the empirical core of this volume. It discusses this methodology in the context of other migration studies and major surveys on migration. Compared to previous studies The Emigrant Communities of Latvia is the most inclusive in terms of the target audience. All Latvians and Latvian nationals abroad were invited to participate in the survey, applying a broad and open definition of ‘Latvian diaspora’ based on personal identification with the Latvian nation and/or citizenship. Being Web-based, the survey did not impose any limitations as to geographic location, aiming at all countries in the world. Combining a wide range of respondent recruitment channels and techniques and supported by a media campaign, the survey reached 14,068 respondents in 118 countries. Innovative solutions were used to increase response rates and to decrease attrition. Several research topics in this study required separate qualitative research approaches. Thus, 159 partly-structured in-depth interviews were also conducted in countries where the Latvian diaspora is largest, as well as in-depth interviews with return migrants and diaspora policy experts. The new methodology has far-reaching potential to be applied to the study of other migrant groups in Europe and beyond. Importantly, The Emigrant Communities of Latvia project has tested and empirically proven the potential of Web surveys in collecting the opinions of large populations of migrants in many countries.