Skip to main content

Improving Surveys Through Ethnography: Insights from India’s Urban Periphery

Studies in Comparative International Development volume 53, pages 281–299 (2018)Cite this article

Abstract

How can ethnographic research improve surveys? I illustrate the benefit of sustained qualitative research on survey design and implementation with reference to my own study of a neglected urban population: internal migrants. Such migrants are an important part of expanding South Asian and African cities. The informality and circular mobility of these populations prevent researchers from accessing them through traditional residence-based surveys. Scant existing knowledge weakens our ability to design theoretically precise and contextually appropriate survey instruments for these understudied communities, particularly cognitively demanding survey experiments to assess political attitudes. I argue that ethnographic fieldwork can help researchers address insufficient access and weak ecological and construct validity. I substantiate these arguments with data and insights from 15 months of fieldwork among circular urban migrants in India. First, I show how ethnography can help design context-sensitive sampling strategies that mitigate concerns of inadequate coverage, high non-response, and inefficiency. Second, I show how ethnography can be used to improve the ecological and construct validity of survey-based experiments. Finally, I show how such ethnographic innovations can be applied beyond the study population that inspired them. Sustained qualitative fieldwork can thus improve survey-based research on political behavior on neglected communities across the global south.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Notes

  1. Extensive circular migration has been documented in countries ranging from Ethiopia (Dercon and Krishnan 2000), to Madagascar (Dostie et al. 2002), to Thailand (Paxson 1993). My survey sample of circular Indian migrants found they made an average of 2.55 trips to their home village each year.

  2. Morton and Williams (2010: 260–261) define construct validity as relating to “how valid the inferences of the data are for the theory the researcher is evaluating… In experimental research, the question is whether the design of the experiment is such that the variables investigated are closely equivalent to the variables the theory is concerned with.”

  3. Morton and Williams (2010: 265) define ecological validity as “whether the environment constructed in the research is similar to that in the target environment.”

  4. In sub-Saharan Africa, geographically bounded ethnic divisions ensure relatively homogenous village communities (McCauley 2014). In South Asia, villages are ethnically diverse, but ascriptive differences are “ranked” and correlate strongly with economic status (Horowitz 1985).

  5. In my migrant sample, only 21.44% of respondents had migrated with their wife to the city.

  6. My approach is similar to, but distinct from, the idea of “participatory econometrics” (Jha et al. 2007). Ethnographic surveys are based on direct qualitative fieldwork conducted by the principal researcher, and presume a period of sustained qualitative fieldwork. By contrast, participatory econometrics can be based on relatively short stints of fieldwork that can be delegated to research teams.

  7. Current Indian census protocols classify a person as a migrant if her place of birth is different from where she is being enumerated. This definition is highly inadequate for capturing circular migrants, who cycle between village and city several times a year. Employment statistics suggest the number of circular migrants in India as close to 100 million, nearly 10 times some official government estimates (Deshingkar and Farrington 2009). Similar undercounting occurs in other Asian countries, notably Indonesia (Hugo 1977).

  8. This figure likely reflects coverage errors stemming from definitions of migrants that do not capture circularity, rather than the true size of these populations.

  9. Author interview, Delhi, 9/15/2013.

  10. See Supplement Figure 2. There is general agreement that construction is the leading employer of circular migrants. NSS (2008), Deshingkar and Farrington (2009), and UNESCO (2012) all estimate roughly 45–55% of such migrants work in this sector.

  11. There were five drawings, so each draw was for 1/5th of the market’s size (observed by the scout team).

  12. The peak of labor market hiring is from 7:30 to 11 a.m., and many markets vanish by noon.

  13. As noted on page 10 of the supplement, 520 workers abandoned the survey for work opportunities (the bulk of the 788 refusals we received).

  14. Unfortunately, data constraints force me to rely on the flawed NSS data for these distributions, even as I have discussed why this data is highly inadequate in capturing circular migrant flows.

  15. Field notes, Rani Nagar Chowk, 9/22/2013.

  16. Interview, Tilak Nagar, 10/29/2013.

  17. Interview, Rani Nagar, 9/18/2013.

  18. Interview, Rani Nagar, 11/10/2013.

  19. Author field notes, Tilak Nagar, 11/20/2013.

  20. Lupu (2017) notes such implicit mediation analysis can analyze if the mediator is correlated with the independent variable whose effect it may mediate, the outcome variable (controlling for the independent variable of interest), and whether both of these relationships are in the same direction. For an alternative methodology based on Bayesian estimation methods, see Imai et al. 2010, 2011.

  21. Interview, Tilak Nagar Chowk, 11/27/2013.

  22. Interview, Tilak Nagar, 9/25/ 2013.

  23. Interview, Tilak Nagar Chowk 11/21/2013.

  24. Interview, Tilak Nagar Chowk, 11/23/2013.

References

  • Adida C. Immigrant exclusion and insecurity in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2014.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Agarwala R. Informal labor, formal politics, and dignified discontent in India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2013.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Allport GW. The nature of prejudice. Reading: Addison-Wesley; 1954.

    Google Scholar 

  • Apter DE. Politics of modernization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; 1965.

    Google Scholar 

  • Auerbach A. Clients and communities. J World Pol. 2016;68:111–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Banerjee A, Green D, McManus J, Pande R. Are poor voters indifferent to whether elected leaders are criminal or corrupt? Pol Comm. 2014;31:391–407.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baron RM, Kenny DM. The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social pyschological research. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1986;51:11173–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bates R. Modernization, ethnic competition, and the rationality of politics in contemporary Africa. In: Rothchild D, Olorunsola V, editors. State versus ethnic claims. Boulder: Westview; 1983.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bullock JG, Ha SE. Mediation analysis is harder than it looks. In: Druckman JN, Green DP, Kuklinski JH, Lupia A, editors. Cambridge handbook of experimental political science. New York: Cambridge University Press; 2011. p. 508–21.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Bullock JG, Green DP, Ha SE. Yes, but what’s the mechanism. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2010;98:550–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bussuroy T, Selway J. Cross-cutting cleavages, discrimination, and inter-personal financial transfers. Working paper; 2011.

  • Chandra K. Constructivist theories of ethnic politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2012.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Chauchard S. Unpacking ethnic preferences. Comp Pol Stud. 2015;49(2):253–284.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chhibber P, Kumar T, Sekhon J. Preferences for descriptive representation. Working paper; 2018.

  • Dercon S, Krishnan P. Vulnerability, seasonality and poverty in ethiopia. J Dev Stud. 2000;36:25–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deshingkar P, Farrington J. Circular migration and multi locational livelihood strategies in rural India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press; 2009.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dostie B, Haggblade S, Randriamamonjy J. Seasonal poverty in Madagascar. Food Policy. 2002;27:493–518.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dunning T, Nilekani J. Ethnic quotas and political mobilization. Am Polit Sci Rev. 2013;107:35–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fearon JD, Laitin DD. Sons of the soil, migrants, and civil war. 2011;39:199–211.

  • Gaikwad N, Nellis G. The majority-minority divide in attitudes toward internal migration. Am J Polit Sci. 2017;61:456–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gelman A, Hill J. Data analysis using regression and multilevel hierarchical models. New York: Cambridge University Press; 2007.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grossman S. The politics of order in informal markets. Working paper; 2015.

  • Habyarimana J, Humphreys M, Posner D, Weinstein J. Why does ethnic diversity undermine public goods provision? Am Polit Sci Rev. 2007;101:709–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horowitz D. Ethnic groups in conflict. Berkeley: University of California; 1985.

  • Hugo G. Circular migration. Bull Indones Econ Stud. 1977;13:57–66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Imai K, Keele L, Tingley D. A general approach to causal mediation analysis. Psychol Methods. 2010;15:309–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Imai K, Keele L, Tingley D, Yamamoto T. Unpacking the black box. Am Polit Sci Rev. 2011;105:765–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Islam MR, Hewstone M. Intergroup attributions and affective consequences in majority and minority groups. J Persp Soc Psychol. 1993;64:936–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jensen R, Peppard D Jr. Hanoi’s informal sector and the Vietnamese economy. J Asian Afr Stud. 2003;38:71–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jha S, Rao V, Woolcock M. Governance in the gullies. World Dev. 2007;34:230–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kapiszewski D, MacLean L, Read B. Field research in political science. New York: Cambridge University Press; 2015.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Landry PF, Shen M. Reaching migrants in survey research: The use of the global positioning system to reduce coverage bias in China. Policy Anal. 2005;13(1):1–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lupu N. Why does wealth affect vote choice. In: Lupu N, Oliveros V, Schiumerini L, editors. Chapter prepared for Campaigns and Voters in Developing Democracies: Argentina in Comparative Perspective. 2017.

  • Marx B, Stoker TM, Suri T. There is no free house. Working paper; 2014.

  • McCauley J. The political mobilization of ethnic and religious identities in Africa. Am Polit Sci Rev. 2014;108:801–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McClendon G, Riedl R. Individualism and empowerment in pentecostal sermons. Afr Aff. 2016;115:119–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morton R, Williams K. Experimental political science and the study of causality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2010.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Nathan N. Local ethnic geography, expectations of favoritism, and voting in urban Ghana. Comp Pol Stud. 2016;49:1896–929.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • National Sample Survey. Migration in India Report 533. 2008.

  • Paxson C. Consumption and income seasonality in Thailand. J Pol Econ. 1993;101:39–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Resnick D. Urban poverty and party populism in African democracies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2013.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Robinson AL. Internal borders. World Dev. 2016;87:371–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rodden J. The long shadow of the industrial revolution. Manuscript; 2011.

  • Rosenzweig S. Dangerous disconnect. Working paper; 2015.

  • Scacco A. Who riots. Working paper; 2008.

  • Teitelbaum E. Mobilizing restraint. World Polit. 2010;62:676–713.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thachil T. Do rural migrants divide ethnically in the city? Evidence from an ethnographic experiment in India. Am J Polit Sci. 2017;61(4):908–926.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thachil T. Does urban police repression increase cooperation between rural migrants? Working paper; 2018.

  • UNESCO. Internal migration in India initiative report. New Delhi; 2012.

  • United Nations. World urbanization prospects; 2014.

  • Weiner M. Sons of the soil. Princeton: Princeton University Press; 1978.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weisberg HF. The total survey error approach. Chicago: University of Chicago; 2005.

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vanderbilt University, 230 Appleton Place, Nashville, TN, 37203, USA

    Tariq Thachil

Authors
  1. Tariq Thachil
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tariq Thachil.

Electronic Supplementary Material

ESM 1

(DOCX 11202 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Thachil, T. Improving Surveys Through Ethnography: Insights from India’s Urban Periphery. St Comp Int Dev 53, 281–299 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12116-018-9272-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12116-018-9272-3

Keywords

  • Migration
  • Behavior
  • Surveys
  • Ethnography
  • Urbanization