Defining Ethnic and Migrant Minorities in Survey Research across Europe: Insights from the Ethnic and Migrant Minorities Survey Registry

Abstract Surveys of ethnic and migrant minorities are key sources of data and information on these populations. How such surveys define, identify, and operationalize these target populations is consequential for the findings and inferences resulting from their analysis. This article systematically identifies and assesses the diverse approaches used in these surveys to define and operationalize the studied ethnic and migrant minorities. Through a comprehensive analysis of survey-level metadata from the Ethnic and Migrant Minorities Survey Registry, covering 1,840 national and subnational surveys conducted between 2000 and 2021 across 34 European countries, we examine the survey questions used to classify the target groups, as well as the broader categorizations that they reveal. The paper highlights common practices and emerging trends in defining and operationalizing ethnic and migrant minority populations. The findings also inform future decision-making by survey researchers on how to define and measure ethnic/origin-related concepts.