The Use of PNAD in Migratory Analysis: Possibilities, Lacks and Methodological Challenges

Abstract

In the nineties, after more than a decade of data collection, PNAD's basic questionnaire included systematic data collection on migration. Nevertheless, scholars and specially demographers have seldom explored this data source. This paper is part of a major evaluation project of PNAD in the nineties. It presents the potentials of this data source for migration research and discusses ways to improve data collection. To assess the quality of PNAD's migration estimates, data on volumes and flows were comparable to the ones obtained from the 1991 Demographic Census and the 1996 In the nineties, after more than a decade of data collection, PNAD's basic questionnaire included systematic data collection on migration. Nevertheless, scholars and specially demographers have seldom explored this data source. This paper is part of a major evaluation project of PNAD in the nineties. It presents the potentials of this data source for migration research and discusses ways to improve data collection. To assess the quality of PNAD's migration estimates, data on volumes and flows were comparable to the ones obtained from the 1991 Demographic Census and the 1996 General Census Count. The results demonstrate that PNAD is a reliable and rich data source to study migration and should be more widely used. This effort would enable scholars to develop novel and creative means of data analysis techniques and improve current instruments for data collection on migration.