Migration from Northern Ireland: a survey of new year travellers as a means of identifying emigrants

"Travellers leaving Northern Ireland's air and sea ports at the end of the New Year holiday period 1988 were contacted as a means of identifying potential out-migrants. The method proved to be highly cost effective and reasonably successful. One thousand individuals who had either lived or had been born in Northern Ireland but who were now residing outside the province were obtained from 1,702 traveller contacts. The paper discusses the problems surrounding the representativeness of this sample of emigrants and outlines possible strategies for their resolution. The more significant results of a brief questionnaire survey about migrant origins, destinations, characteristics, motivations and intentions are also presented." (SUMMARY IN FRE AND GER)