ABSTRACT This article reports on the first step in a larger project aimed at obtaining accurate and reliable data on migration in the South African context. It examines the comparability of questions relating to migration asked in the 1996, 2001 and 2011 censuses. It goes on to present migration data with respect to the Western Cape province and South Africa (as a whole) using those sources. The major findings were: (1) There are discrepancies in the wording of the questions used in the three censuses, but this does not prevent the drawing of meaningful conclusions about the historical trend in migration; (2) The extent of migration into the Western Cape is consistently greater than that into South Africa as a whole; and (3) The trend towards an increasing tendency to migrate was temporarily interrupted around the year 2000. The research reported on is an example of longitudinal research using existing data and illustrates some of the difficulties associated with this method of social research. Research which compares census data to other sources of data on migration will enhance researchers’ understanding of the extent of migration in this society.

中文翻译：

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比较来自种族隔离后人口普查的移民数据：纵向研究的挑战

摘要 本文报告了一个更大项目的第一步，该项目旨在获得南非背景下准确可靠的移民数据。它检查了 1996 年、2001 年和 2011 年人口普查中提出的与移民有关的问题的可比性。它继续使用这些来源提供有关西开普省和南非（作为一个整体）的移民数据。主要发现是： (1) 三次普查所用问题的措辞存在差异，但这并不妨碍对移民的历史趋势得出有意义的结论；(2) 进入西开普省的移民程度始终大于进入南非整体的程度；(3) 迁移趋势增加的趋势在 2000 年左右暂时中断。报告的研究是使用现有数据进行纵向研究的一个例子，并说明了与这种社会研究方法相关的一些困难。将人口普查数据与其他移民数据来源进行比较的研究将增强研究人员对这个社会中移民程度的理解。