Under-representation of foreign minorities in cross-sectional and longitudinal surveys in Switzerland

Most Western societies have seen massive international migration inflows during the past decades. Unlike the typical migrant of the 1960s, however, today’s migrants can hardly be standardised in terms of skills, gender and country of origin. This results in a high heterogeneity in terms of educational levels, social positions and gender (Koser & Lutz 1998; Kofman, Phizaclea, Raghuram & Sales 2000).