Nicaragua

NIC9 - Databases

PERS

A person-level file that provides general demographic information and a few migration measures for each member of a surveyed household, and for other children of the household head who are no longer members of the household. Data include age, sex, relationship to head of household, marital status, current economic indicators, and characteristics of the first and last migration trips made to the United States (or to any country in the case of the Peru surveys) and to other locations in the home country. Migration trips are defined as those that involve work, the active search of work, or otherwise a period of residence in the United States (or in any other country in the Peru surveys).

MIG

A person-level file that provides data on all household heads with labor or residential experience in the United States (or in any destination country in the Peru surveys). Hence, each record corresponds to a migrant household head. It contains measures of economic and social activity in the destination country. Some refer to the migratory experience in general, while others specifically target the most recent trip.

Variations over MIG file in Nicaragua:

The Nicaragua surveys collected data on migration experience to both the United States and Costa Rica. Starting in community 3, LAMP fieldworkers also began to collect, under certain restrictions specified below, the same information for the spouse or for a child of the household head. As a result, the Nicaraguan database contains the following additional migration files:

1. The MIGCR file (all communities), with data on the household head’s migration experience to Costa Rica.
2. The MIGOTHER file (starting in community 3), with data on the U.S. migratory experience of the spouse or a child of the household head. These data were only collected if these two conditions were met: the household head did not have any migratory experience (to either the U.S. or Costa Rica) and his/her spouse, or one of his/her children, had U.S. migratory experience.
3. The MIGCROTHER file (starting in community 3), with data on the migration experience to Costa Rica of the spouse or a child of the household head. These data were only collected if these two conditions were met: the household head did not have any migratory experience (to either the U.S. or Costa Rica) and his/her spouse, or one of his/her children, had migratory experience to Costa Rica.

LAMP fieldworkers were instructed not to collect migration-specific information for more than one individual per household. It follows that when both the “migother” and the “migcrother” files contain a record for a given household number, that record corresponds to the same person.

HOUSE

A household-level file containing information on household composition, economic and migratory activity of household members and other relatives, home/real estate ownership and amenities, vehicle ownership and financing, and business ownership, operation and financing. Each record corresponds to a household.

LIFE

An event-history file where each record is a person-year. Life file details the labor and family histories of each head of household, for each year since birth until the year of the survey. These data are supplemented by various time-constant variables gleaned from the previous three data files.

SPOUSE

An event-history file where each record is a person-year. Spouse file details the labor history of each spouse of household head, for each year since birth until the year of the survey.

COMMUN

This file provides some basic information on the surveyed communities, regarding basic utilities, health, school, sports and banking facilities, road infrastructure, etc. Each record corresponds to a community.