Preparing the International Migration Questions for the 2006 American Community Survey Content Test

Claire Shook-Finucane, U.S. Census Bureau

The American Community Survey (ACS) provides current demographic, socio-economic, and housing data. As the Census Bureau’s replacement for the long form of the decennial census, the ACS will be the primary source for timely information on the foreign-born population, a demographically dynamic part of the U.S. population. Over the past few years, Census Bureau analysts and outside experts have identified limitations to measuring the size and characteristics of the foreign-born population through the use of existing survey questions on place of birth, citizenship, and year of entry. In order to address these limitations, revised questions have been proposed. They will be tested in the 2006 ACS Content Test to examine the possibility of changing the international migration questions on the 2008 ACS. This paper contains an overview of the process of testing questions on the ACS Content Test and describes the proposed changes to the international migration questions.