Uncharted Terrains: New Directions in Border Research Methodology, Ethics, and Practice

Chapter Twelve. Methodological and Ethical Implications in the Design and Application of the Mexican Household Survey in Phoenix Arizona (EHMPA 2007)

233 chapter twelve Methodological and Ethical Implications in the Design and Application of the Mexican Household Survey in Phoenix, Arizona (EHMPA 2007) Blas Valenzuela Camacho Introduction Recent literature has argued the emergence of a “new profile” of the migratory phenomenon from Mexico to the United States. This post-IRCA and post-NAFTA migration has been characterized by a diversification of origins and destinations, a unidirectional movement that departs from previous patterns of circular migration, the urban characteristic of the origins, increased and different participation of women, and the growing incorporation of migrant children (Cornelius 2001; Woo 2004; Durand et al. 2005; Meneses 2005; Zúñiga and Hernández-León 2005, 2006; Anguiano and Trejo 2007). The first of the processes mentioned, the diversification of origins and destinations (Cornelius 1992; Durand 1998; Canales 2003; Durand et al. 2005; Zúñiga and Hernández-León 2005, 2006; Light and von Scheven 2008), implies the convergence of two different but closely related phenomena . On one side, in Mexico, regions of the country that did not previously represent important participation in the migratory movement toward the United States, outside of the traditional migratory region, are beginning to incorporate themselves into markets in an increasingly important 234 • A Fence on Its Side Is a Bridge way (Zúñiga, Leite, and Nava 2004). In contrast, destinations in midsized and small populations have emerged in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States, for example in Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Idaho, Utah, Arkansas, New York, Georgia, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee, which is a result of the implementation of IRCA in 1986 and reinforced by NAFTA (Zúñiga and Hernández-León 2005). Between 1985 and 1990, 63 percent of Mexican citizens who arrived in the United States went to California, but between 1995–2000, this figure fell to 35 percent. At the same time, those who arrived in nontraditional states rose from 13 percent to 35 percent. Since 1970, new poles of attraction emerged in states such as Florida, Idaho, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, and others. Mexican migration to Arizona has risen from 4.4 percent in 2000 to 6.2 percent (Durand et al. 2005). Until the growing dispersion of settlement destinations as the new century dawned, migrants of Mexican origin were concentrated in the gateway states of California, Texas, Illinois, and Arizona. In California there were 8,455,926 people of Mexican origin, who represented 25 percent of the total population of the state; the Mexican immigrant population in Texas was 5,071,963, which represented 24.3 percent of the total population of the state; Illinois had 1,144,390 people of Mexican origin, but they represented a minor percentage of the total population (9.2 percent); in Arizona, people of Mexican origin were fewer (1,065,578), but they represented 20.8 percent of the total population of the state (U.S. Census Bureau 2007). As immigrants in the United States began settling in non-gateway regions in the mid-1980s, origin-destination systems that connected specific origins in Mexico with specific destinations in the United States became discernible. One of the origin-destination systems, documented by Harner (1995), is the migration pattern that emerged in the Mexican state of Sinaloa and was directed toward the Phoenix metropolitan area in Arizona. Out of this inquiry, research has emerged on the continuity and relevance of this migration pattern, as well as its patterns of residential settlements in the region, its sociodemographic profile, the economic/ labor sectors in which it inserts itself, and the impacts associated within the origin as well as the destination. Responses to these inquiries will help us to better understand the recent changes in the migratory phenomenon between the two countries. Locating and obtaining information from a population from a specific state such as Sinaloa in an environment that is hostile toward migration Design and Application of the Mexican Household Survey • 235 such as Phoenix, Arizona (El Universal 2005; La Crónica 2007; La Jornada 2007; The New York Times 2008), required the use of diverse sources of documented information, the collaboration of community organizations such as the Latino Health Council (Concilio Latino de Salud 2011), governmental institutions such as the Mexican Consulate in Phoenix, and finally, the application of an extensive survey of Mexican households in this metropolitan area. The purpose of the present work is to document this process of seeking information, and the methodological...