Immigrant Mobilization Project, Nilda Flores-Gonzalez

In the July 18 post Esther J. Cepeda: "May [illegal immigration] marchers mostly U.S. citizens" I discussed the findings of a "study" done by a group calling itself the "Immigrant Mobilization Project" which was supposedly affiliated with the University of Illinois-Chicago. The fact that at the time I couldn't find any information on that group either through google or uic.edu caused me to wonder even more about the "study" than I did for the other reasons listed.

Now, it's come to my attention that the "Immigrant Mobilization Project" does indeed exist and it's run by "Professor Nilda Flores-Gonzalez (Sociology and Latin American and Latino Studies) and Professor Amalia Pallares (Political Science and Latin American and Latino Studies)". They apparently put up (or had indexed) their page after the Cepeda article appeared.

My other comments regarding the "study" not only stand, they've been strengthened by the researchers themselves. From the article "Survey: Most in rally citizens":

...Flores-Gonzalez acknowledged that the U.S. citizen responses might be inflated because as many as 20 percent of UIC staff who conducted the survey spoke only English and could not interview respondents who didn't speak the language. Those respondents likely were not U.S. citizens, she said.

Also, because the May 1 rally happened just days after a high-profile raid by the Department of Homeland Security against illegal immigrants in Chicago, some respondents might have said they were U.S. citizens out of fear, Flores-Gonzalez said...

And, I thank her for adding to my list of reasons why the survey should not be trusted.

If anyone has any background information on those professors, please leave it in the comments.

Immigration · Fri, 08/18/2006 - 18:18 · · Importance: 1