You can now watch A Mexican Sound in its entirety online. We also have lots of extra features available for you, such as deleted scenes and rare live performances. And the best parts: the film only costs 99 cents and is available worldwide.

http://vimeo.com/ondemand/amexicansound

There are a lot of questions to think about before you begin designing your survey questionnaire. While you are thinking about these questions, I recommend that you read and refer to books like Survey Methodology by Robert Groves et al. and Improving Survey Questions by Floyd Fowler, Jr.

Research Design Basics

What is your intended output or use for the data you will collect?

Do you plan to conduct multivariate analyses with this data that can then be discussed in publications?

Are you more interested in using this data for descriptive purposes and for internal use at your university or organization?

Are you interested in creating a dataset that can be shared with the public and analyzed by other people?

What 3 or 4 central research questions or hypotheses are you interested in exploring? Defining these will help you determine the variables you need in the dataset and therefore the kinds of sections and questions that should be included in the questionnaire.

Is this study part of some larger research agenda or ongoing project that you’d like to begin working on?

Are you interested in making this the first wave of a longitudinal study that follows respondents at some point(s) in the future?

Are you interested in making this a one-off cross-sectional study? 

Or are you interested in making this the first in a series of cross-sectional studies that are replicated and conducted at regular intervals on different samples? 

Any interest in plotting respondents’ values on certain variables and following up with a few typical and extreme cases for follow-up interviews?

Should the data you collect be strictly quantitative? Or would it be wise to do some in-depth qualitative work to complement the quantitative data? What kind of qualitative data should you collect? Ethnographic research? In-depth interviews? Historical analysis?

 Who/what is your unit of analysis? Who will you interview in order to get information about your unit of analysis.

Population & Sampling

What is the population your data will be used to make inferences about?

Who will be included in the sample? How will you select respondents?

Do you have a target sample size?

What kind of response rate do you expect?

Will you oversample to reach your target sample size?

To what extent will you offer incentives to convince respondents to participate in the study?

To what extent will you follow-up with respondents who are not home at the time of the survey or who initially decline to participate in the survey?

Are there any subpopulations that you would like to oversample so that you can run independent analyses on their data?

Questionnaire Design

What data do you already have on respondents that you might be able to merge with your survey data? (This will save you from wasting precious interviewing time asking questions you already have data on.)

Are there any questions that have been asked consistently on other surveys that have been conducted on your topic of interest? (If so, it may be good to use their language.)

Are there any prior studies that you would like to address, replicate, build from, refute, or use as models? (If so, you should carefully understand their models, questionnaires, and data so that we may craft questions to collect data on similar variables.)

How will you define and measure certain concepts of interest?

Are there any indices that you might want to create in order to develop more nuanced variables that measure difficult-to-measure concepts?

Are you interested in including a life history calendar or some other more complex questionnaire design that collects data on respondents’ histories and experiences with some concept or phenomenon?

Are you interested in including open-ended questions that can then be classified and coded later?

How and when will you pre-test your questions to assure they are not confusing or ambiguous? (Make sure you pre-test with plenty of time to revise the entire questionnaire.)

How will you seek to prevent satisficing?

How will you seek to prevent social desirability bias?

Implementation

How will you administer the questionnaire? In person? Over the phone? Over the internet? By mail?

Who will administer the questionnaire?

How will you make sure that those who administer the questionnaire are doing so consistently and read the questions exactly as they’re worded on the survey questionnaire?

How will you make sure interviewers are not fabricating data?

How will you deal with respondents who do not speak English or who do not speak English well?

Do you want to create a computer program or use some software or online service to enter the data as the survey is conducted?

Reviews by professors

There are inevitably real people behind the strident slogans and ideological labels in today’s immigration debate.  Roy Germano’s The Other Side of Immigration does more than any other work to give people otherwise disparaged as “threatening” and “illegal” a human face and to reveal the devastating personal effects of U.S. immigration and economic policies on our closest neighbors. – Douglas S. Massey, professor of Sociology, Princeton University

An intelligent, thought-provoking, beautiful, and caring look at the costs of policies in Mexico and the United States that lead to illegal immigration by so many. It is an understatement to say that the film has made me think.  - Liza Finkel, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs in the Graduate School of Education and professor of Curriculum and Instruction, Portland State University

I recommend The Other Side of Immigration with enthusiasm for a wide range of audiences, including community groups, higher education institutions, public schools, and policy makers. – Scott Fletcher, Dean of Graduate School of Education and Counseling, Lewis & Clark College

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Reviews on Netflix

Absolutely, positively excellent. It really opened up my eyes! I have often been involved in conversation where the majority speaking are complaining about immigrants from Mexico. I never had much intelligent to say on the issue, so mostly kept my mouth shut, but this documentary has changed that. Now I have a LOT to say and hopefully I can encourage others to think more thoughtfully about this issue.

This is a wonderful look at a very pressing topic. I think the director finally gave a fair voice to the people that immigrate to the U.S. every year. Very well done and VERY eye opening to the fact that our current system is not working. This film was excellent.

This is NOT the kind of idealistic left-wing thing you expect it to be…it’s actually not political or left or right at all. This is an honest, piercing, rhetoric-free examination of the situation and possible solutions. It does not do any bashing of any kind—I can’t imagine any legitimate ideological viewpoint that could be fundamentally offended by this. Everyone will get something important from this documentary; whether you deliberately discard it afterwards is your responsibility.

This is not a liberal propaganda movie as much as as its a story about the Mexican people and their country. It is essentially about stories from two perspectives, a human perspective, how it affects families/micro-economies, and the bigger picture of Mexican government and its economy.

Finally the truth is unveiled. Thank you for opening the eyes of many people to a reality that has hurt Mexican families and individuals for decades. If we claim to be a country that helps other countries, we need to do the right thing in this case as well. Maybe we don’t because it is for our advantage that this situation stays this way. Awesome work, thank you Roy Germano.

I thought this movie was great because it was told from the perspective of people who have crossed the border, and it let them tell their story. The people in the film also address the Mexican government’s involvement in the issue, which I found was different from other documentaries.

I liked this a lot, but it may not be for everybody (despite the other glowing reviews on here). The key to understanding this film is that the director, Roy Germano, is not a filmmaker by training, but an academic. This film was part of his research for his Ph.D in political science at the University of Texas at Austin, and so it comes across as, well, kind of academic (though much simpler). Some might find that boring – there isnt really any dramatic imagery or cinematic flourishes, minus a few decent montages of the physical and cultural landscape* – but I found it refreshing. The vast majority of the film consists of very simple camera-on-tripod interviews. Dr. Germano doesnt add much, he just lets his interview subjects speak, allowing Americans to catch a glimpse of the human side of their neighbors to the south, and letting a key voice in the immigration debate to FINALLY be heard. If you have at least a token interest in social science, deal with immigrants on a regular basis, and/or you dont mind 55 minutes of talking heads (albeit articulate ones), then please check out this movie. Even if you dont fit any of the previously described categories, you should still see it anyways. *This film was released on Conor Obersts label, so he contributed to the soundtrack and is credited as an executive producer.

This is a great example of a film that reveals an often unheard side of an issue we think we know- immigration. It is a good watch- no matter what side of the debate you are on- because it isn’t about rhetoric it is an honest investigation of the issue.

~~~

Reviews on Amazon

With the immigration debate such a hot topic, this is one of the most important documentaries an American can watch. I was relieved to finally see a documentary that shows the true side of migration into the United States. This documentary takes a peak into the painful reasons why people leave their precious families to migrate to the United States. These immigrants sacrifice and risk their lives just to provide their families the basic necessities of life. This documentary was beautifully captured in Mexico and shows real human beings just telling how it really is. The Other Side of Immigration is a must see for anyone serious about the immigration topic.

This is among the best documentaries I have viewed. Very well done! With immigration a real “hot button” issue in our country, it is extremely important to see the other side of the problem. So often, we only think of our own personal views and experiences without any knowledge of what life is like for others. As was expressed in the film, there ARE solutions to this problem. The governments CAN find solutions if they want to, and try. This film was definitely worth the money! I wil be sharing it with small groups in my church who sincerely want what is best for ALL people ~ men, women, and children ~ no matter race or creed.

It was informative, gave a wide variety of perspectives from former migrants, government officials, and other community members regarding the issue of US/Mexican immigration

Revelatory. it humanizes the often-politicized topic of immigration it encourages true dialogue and exchange of ideas. Great film that encourages a more reflective consideration.

This film gives a very balanced look at undocumented immigration and how it is played out in the local level. Use it as a kick start for yearly immigration project.

This is an amazing, eye opening documentary. Your heart will go out to this people. You will realize how you take so many things for granted that others have to leave behind in an effort to survive. This is real, it goes deep to the real issue and the root of the problem. Loved it and I am sure you will too!

This is a powerful movie that accurately describes the reasons for our immigration situation. This should be required viewing for anyone, who has an opinion about the situation in Mexico and how corruption, dishonesty and incompetence of the Mexican government has forced the citizens of Mexico to go across the border to survive.

This documentary has givin me so much insight and understanding of what these people are going through and what pushes them north. Between NAFTA and government corruption they have no chance at a descent living. I to would do what ever it takes to provide for my family.I only wish my fellow countrymen/woman that look down on these people would educate themselves on this matter.

This is an excellent documentary about undocumented immigrants in the U.S. from the perspective of the people who come here and the ones that stay behind. Powerful and enthralling, the interviews tell about the experiences that people have had, both in Mexico and in the U.S., and why they continue to cross the border. This is a powerful documentary that sheds light on a growing issue that is extremely one-sided in the media coverage. This is a must see, and gives a voice to the people who come to the U.S. each year by means of grueling journeys.

I first saw this film at a screening in my university and I absolutely loved it. It gave me great insight into the lives of ordinary Mexicans who come to the United States looking for opportunity and work. In a time when America is so divided and xenophobic, I believe this video will help further our understanding of the reasons why so many Mexicans migrate into the United States as political and economic refugees each year. I recommend this film to anyone who may want to learn more about our neighbors in Mexico.

In the spirit of making political science research more accessible and demonstrating the broader impacts of our work, I thought I’d share my experiences:Between 2005-2008, I was on a National Science Foundation fellowship while doing my Ph.D. in political science at the University of Texas at Austin. I studied quantitative methods and am an alum of the Empirical Implications of Theoretical Models (EITM) summer program. To test my dissertation’s hypotheses about the effects of migrants’ remittances on political behavior, I went to Mexico to collect quantitative data from 700+ households. I wrote a largely quantitative dissertation and have a forthcoming article in Electoral Studies that reports some of my results (an academic book is in the works, too).

As anyone who has ever applied for an NSF grant knows, proposals are judged not only on the basis of their “intellectual merit,” but also for their “broader impacts.” Specifically, the NSFrequires that grantees demonstrate the benefits of their research to society and discuss how they will disseminate findings broadly. The NSF offers a number of suggestions about how to satisfy the broader impacts criterion. Examples include “publish in diverse media” and “integrate research with education activities.”

With all of this in mind, I decided to take a video camera to Mexico so that I could film the in-depth interviews that I planned to conduct with policymakers, farmers, remittance-recipients, and return migrants. I hoped to create a teaching tool or audio/visual data source that could complement my statistical work and help make my research accessible beyond scholars in my subfield. The interviews and filming went much better than expected, so when I returned from Mexico, I decided to invest some time in learning how to edit the footage. About a year later, I released an hour-long video about the interaction of emigration and politics in Mexico called The Other Side of Immigration.

The Other Side of Immigration went on to win a 2011 American Library Association Notable Video Award and has been presented at 100+ universities and public institutions around the world. It’s also on iTunes and Netflix. I have been amazed by how effectively digital video has allowed me to transmit my findings to researchers, students, and professionals in fields that political scientists do not normally interact with: I have been invited to give talks at public health conferences, law schools, medical schools, education policy conferences, and cultural institutions. Viewers tell me all the time that they appreciate the research-based, nonpartisan perspective provided in The Other Side of Immigration. I think one thing that distinguishesThe Other Side of Immigration from other documentaries on the topic is that it is organized around my dissertation’s hypotheses as well as established theories of international migration.

While digital video has permitted my research to cross disciplinary lines in ways that I never imagined, it’s unclear where this work fits into political science. There’s no system (or will, it seems) for evaluating the academic contributions of data or research outputs that leverage digital video technology. However, I believe that when certain procedures are followed, digital video has the potential to be a valuable source of qualitative data, a methodological tool that can help us do more rigorous qualitative fieldwork, and a serious form of theory-driven, explanatory publication that can complement and lend credibility to quantitative research. I think we political scientists should be putting our heads together about how to create an online digital video data repository (I envision a hybrid of YouTube and the ICPSRdata archives) and developing procedures to evaluate the academic merit of work that is disseminated (i.e., published) with digital video technology. I think the digital video revolution of the past few years has provided political scientists new research opportunities in ways that we’ve yet to seriously explore or debate.

Here’s how you can pay taxes if you’re in the country illegally.

STEP 1. Fill out a federal tax return

Start by filling out your federal tax return. If your income is less than $57,000 per year, you can use free online tax preparation software. You may also want to pay a tax professional (an accountant) to help you fill out the forms. Click here for links to tax filing software or to locate a tax professional who can help you.

STEP 2.  Send your federal tax return forms to the IRS with your identification and your ITIN application

If you are in the country illegally, you are not eligible for a Social Security Number. But you can file your tax returns using something called an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN).

Follow these steps to complete your tax return and get an ITIN:

1. Read this instruction form.
2. Fill out a W-7 ITIN application form.
3. Attach the completed W-7 form to the front of your completed federal tax return
4. Along with your W-7 form and federal tax return, you must include original identification documents to establish your identity. You cannot send copies—you must send original documents. Your documents will be returned to the address you provide on your tax return in about six weeks. Identification documents are things like passport, foreign voters’ registration card, birth certificate, etc. You can find a complete list of acceptable documents in the box at the top of page 3 of the instruction form. Make sure to read the instruction form carefully and include the correct documents!
5. Mail everything (the W-7 form, the tax return, and original identification documents) to

 Internal Revenue Service
Austin Service Center
ITIN Operation
P.O. Box 149342
Austin, TX 78714-9342

STEP 3. Call the IRS if you have any questions

The IRS is the government institution that collects taxes in the United States. Call the IRS at 1-800-829-1040 if you have any questions. They are very helpful. The IRS does not care about your immigration status. Their job is to pay taxes, not verify immigration status or deport people. So you don’t have to worry that they will share your information with the Department of Homeland Security or Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Just pay your taxes!

I’m excited to announce that my new film A Mexican Sound has been named an Official Selection at some great film festivals.

WORLD PREMIERE
Official Selection
20th Annual San Diego Latino Film Festival
San Diego, CA

ARIZONA PREMIERE
Official Selection
2013 Phoenix College Latino Film Festival
Phoenix, AZ

EAST COAST PREMIERE
Official Selection
8th Annual Sunscreen Film Festival
St. Petersburg, FL

TEXAS PREMIERE
Official Selection
16th Annual Cine Las Americas Film Festival
Austin, TX

EUROPEAN PREMIERE
Official Selection
XIV Irish Latin America Film Festival
Belfast – Dublin – Galway, Ireland

From the beginning, we wanted to use American music. The Other Side of Immigration was made for an American audience, so we wanted to the soundtrack to reflect that.

We were lucky to have the support of some amazing artists who donated their work to this project and the larger cause it promotes: Jim James of the band My Morning Jacket and Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes and Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band.

Here’s the song list:

1. “The Way That He Sings” by My Morning Jacket

2. “Four Winds” by Bright Eyes

3. “Strangulation” by My Morning Jacket

4. “Cape Canaveral” by Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band

5. “I’m Amazed” by My Morning Jacket

6. “Alejandra” by Cuarteto Latinoamericano

The film will also screen at the Phoenix College Latino Film Festival at the end of March and the Irish Latin America Film Festival in Dublin, Galway, and Belfast in April. Check our Events page for all the details for these and future screenings.

The film is about an amazing style of Mexican music and dance called son huasteco. Son huasteco is played in small, mountainous communities in the Huasteca, a region of Mexico located in the northeast and central-east of the country.

Son huasteco is very intense and energetic. It’s built around rapid violin flourishes, falsetto singing, and the driving rhythms of two special guitars (the jarana huasteca and the quinta huapanguera). It’s a huge sound for just 3 musicians, and maybe even sounds a little crazy the first time you hear it. In live performances, an additional rhythmic element is added when people stomp and dance on a huge wooden platform called a tarima.

Watch a clip of the film: