Emilio Zagheni - University of Washington

Using Social Media Data to Estimate Migration

    Date:  11/16/2017 (Thu)

    Time:  3:30pm- 5:00pm

    Location:  Seminar will be held on-site: Gross Hall 270

    Organizer:  Giovanna Merli


Meeting Schedule: Login or email the organizer to schedule a meeting.

    All meetings will be held in the same location as the seminar unless otherwise noted.

    8:30am - giovanna merli (breakfast)

    9:00am - giovanna merli (breakfast)

    9:30am - giovanna merli (breakfast)

   10:00am - Maria M Laurito

   10:30am - Katherine King

   11:00am - Mark Yacoub

   11:30am - Amy Finnegan (DGHI, PubPol)

   12:00pm - Lunch - Emma Zang - Claire Le Barbenchon - Allison Stolte

   12:30pm - Lunch - Emma Zang- Claire Le Barbenchon - Allison Stolte

    1:00pm - Lunch - Emma Zang- Claire Le Barbenchon - Allison Stolte

    1:30pm - Seth Sanders

    2:00pm - Friedolin Merhout

    2:30pm - Trish Homan

    3:00pm - Seminar Prep

    3:30pm - Seminar Presentation (3:30pm to 5:00pm)

    7:30pm - Dinner at The Durham- Chris Bail, Scott Lynch, Margaret Frye.


    Additional Comments:  Social media data have generated new opportunities for the study of human migration and geographic mobility. However, these data also come with important limitations due to several types of bias. In this talk I discuss two collaborative projects that leverage social media data to estimate stocks and flows of international migration. First I show the use of aggregated data from the Facebook's advertising platform to estimate migration stocks. This work indicates the feasibility of estimating stocks of migrants using data from Facebook Adverts Manager, a tool developed for advertisers to target users with certain characteristics, such as age, gender, country of origin, education level, or topical interest. Second, I present an approach for harmonizing rates of migration flows using geo-located micro-level Twitter data. The two examples highlight the importance of combining traditional and new sources of data for the study of migration and mobility.