The Migrant Community Challenges Survey (MCCS)

The main objective of the Migrant Community Challenges Survey (MCCS) is to identify key challenges faced by migrant communities regardless of their status, as well as the size and composition of migrant communities. This is important information for researchers and policy makers interested in improving the living situation of migrants, allowing migrants to participate fully in society.

For this purpose, the project will recruit survey respondents through targeted Facebook advertisements. The MCCS is an international survey project piloted in USA and Spain. It has been developed and executed by Penn State University (Jennifer van Hook), University of Potsdam, Germany (Jasper Tjaden), and the Universitat de les Illes Balears, Spain (Ismael Galvez Iniesta).

The survey has been funded by the European Union under the Horizon funding scheme. The survey is part of work package 6 of the MIRREM Project (Measuring irregular migration and related policies). MIrreM examines the quantitative dimension of irregular migration and related policies. MIrreM assesses existing estimates and statistical indicators and explores new quantitative approaches. A special focus will be on regularisation policies and their impact. In close cooperation with relevant stakeholders MIrreM will develop recommendations on irregular migration data and regularisation, respectively.

Work Package 6, the ‘Methods Lab’, is tasked with exploring various ways of measuring irregular migration, especially using innovative approaches such as digital data, flight data, mortality and labour force data. The main aim is assessing the technical feasibility as well as political and ethical limitations of innovative approaches. MCCS is one of these pilots testing the feasibility of collecting information about the challenges faced by regular and irregular migrants. Recruiting respondents without a legal residence status into traditional surveys has been extremely difficult. As a result, one of the questions of MCCS is whether anonymous Facebook surveys are a viable way to elicit responses from the particular group.

Please click here to find out more about the overall project (https://irregularmigration.eu/)

Please click here to find out more about the project funding: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101061314