Complete Thesis_double spaced abstract.pdf

National Census Data
Most often, national census data is the most comprehensive data available for a given
state. However, certain states within Central and Latin America did not undertake national
censuses at regular intervals using modern techniques until the 1960s and 1970s. Additionally,
states within Central and Latin America frequently did not employ a standard definition for
migration when conducting their national censuses. Categories included in one census were
omitted in the next census. Furthermore, ethnic populations, rural populations and undocumented
populations are frequently undernumerated in national censuses.
Guatemala instituted its first national census using “reasonably accurate” modern
techniques in 1950, and conducted subsequent censuses in 1964, 1973, 1981, 1994, and 2002
(Micklin, 1990, 163-64). However, as Michael Micklin outlines in the International Handbook on
Migration (1990), there are several issues to consider when relying solely on Guatemalan census
data for migration research: (1) Guatemala did not have a “standard definition of migration in
official use” until the 1970s, (2) the 1950 and 1964 censuses classified persons on a “de facto
basis,” a person’s physical location on the day the census was taken, this included seasonal
agricultural workers who were counted at their places of employment and not at their residences,
(3) the smallest unit of measurement in the Guatemalan census is the departmento, the municipio
level data is “rarely published” and rarely analyzed, (4) urban, rural and municipio designations
have changed over the years the census was administered, (5) Guatemalan census data is
undernumerated, especially for rural Mayan populations, and (6) different categories of
information are collected certain years and then not collected in the following census (Micklin,
1990, 163-65).
Once Guatemala began to define migration in its census it did so using three broad
designations: lifetime migrants, recent migrants and intermediate migrants (Micklin, 1990, 164).
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