Difficulties and Solutions for Surveying Refugees: Bosnian Refugees in St. Louis

• Activity Number: 106
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, August 7, 2006 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Section on Survey Research Methods
• Author(s): Kevin McIntyre*+ and Hisako Matsuo and Terry Tomazic
• Companies: Saint Louis University and Saint Louis University and Saint Louis University
• Keywords: surveying refugees ; difficulties ; Bosnians ; sampling frame ; causal model

Abstract

This paper addresses some of the difficulties of surveying refugees and the methods that the authors used to solve these difficulties. Using Bosnian refugees in St. Louis as a target population, the paper also elaborates on the methods used for conceptualization, operationalization, sampling, and data collection. Some of the major difficulties of surveying refugee populations are 1) lack of English competence, 2) cultural barriers in conceptualization, 3) uncertainty about validity of scales, 4) refugees' unfamiliarity with Likert-type scales, and 5) their transient residence. There are about 50,000 Bosnian refugees in the St. Louis area, creating a critical mass of this population. The authors used a grounded theory method for conceptualization, collecting qualitative data, then developed a causal model which was assumed to explain Bosnian refugees' adaptation to the US society.