Improving international migration statistics Priorities for future work Regional workshop on international migration statistics, Geneva, 4-6 december 2007 Dr. Werner Haug

The starting point: a headache National immigration authorities have many data, but only for certain categories of migrants Flow data depend on administrative registration and residence rules Statistical definitions are often not applied Few countries have reliable data on emigration Citizenship of immigrants and acquisition of citizenship is often not covered Censuses take usually place only every 10 years WHAT TO DO? UNSC and UNECE-CES, Regional workshop on international migration statistics, 4-6 december 2007

Better use of administrative data Need for: Better use and harmonization of administrative records from different ministries (border control, interior, labour, health, education etc.) Problems: Lack of cooperation between statistical and administrative authorities, difficulty of access to administrative data, statistical needs not adequately reflected in administrative procedures What to do: Create interagency task force, participate in interagency committees, create high level commitment, initiate government decisions. Lead for statistics should be with statistics! … UNSC and UNECE-CES, Regional workshop on international migration statistics, 4-6 december 2007

Introduce or reform registration systems Need for: Introduction or reform of population registration systems which should adequately reflect permanent and temporary residence, arrivals and departures of nationals and foreigners Problems: Tradition, lack of ressources and incentives, links with rights and obligations (political, economic, family and housing etc.), limited influence of NSI’s What to do: Improve political awareness, initiate legal changes, create incentives for registration and deregistration, learn from countries with efficient registration systems … UNSC and UNECE-CES, Regional workshop on international migration statistics, 4-6 december 2007

Efficient registration: part of a larger political and social context Why to register? Free: no or very low fees Access to residence and work Access to social and health services Access to education Access to political rights Why to deregister? Don’t want to pay taxes Don’t want to do military service Don’t want to receive bills and reminders Deregistration as a condition for registration Deregistration as a condition for protection abroad If incentives are absent or work in the wrong direction: the results will be statistical undercount, overcount and lack of timeliness! UNSC and UNECE-CES, Regional workshop on international migration statistics, 4-6 december 2007

Invest in the 2010 Population Census Need for: Comparability with: a) other countries on the basis of UN recommendations and b) earlier national censuses. Improve migration data through introduction of additional questions: Special migration module on emigrants absent from the household for more than one year and questions on reasons of migration. Problems: Advocacy and consultation on national level, methodological know how, ressources What to do: Mobilize national and international support. Learning from other migrant sending (Tunesia, Mexico, Philippines) and receiving countries (Western Europe and North America) … UNSC and UNECE-CES, Regional workshop on international migration statistics, 4-6 december 2007

Introduce migration questions in household surveys Need for: More frequent data on immigration/emigration, data on migrants and expatriates on the labour market, their living conditions, income and health, data on subgroups of the population Problems: Coverage of migrants in household surveys (irregular migrants, temporary absent/present migrants, institutional households) What to do: Develop standardised modules on migrants (and remittances) particularly in LFS, LSMS, rolling censuses in sending and receiving countries. Develop adequate sampling frames ... UNSC and UNECE-CES, Regional workshop on international migration statistics, 4-6 december 2007

Improve demographic data analysis Need for: More demographic analysis on the comparability and quality of different data on the national and international level (Censuses, vital statistics, administrative data, surveys). Use demographic accounting and modelling as analytical tools for migration estimates. Problems: Ressources and know how in NSI’s, access to individual data, lack of metadata What to do: Initiation of research projects, workshops, training, foreign expertise … UNSC and UNECE-CES, Regional workshop on international migration statistics, 4-6 december 2007

Horizontal issues Involve all relevant national stakeholders, organise interagency cooperation (who: national governments, NSI’s, migration related ministries, research institutions) Develop a Masterplan for the improvement of population and migration statistics which is realistic and adresses the needs of migrant sending and receiving countries in the medium and long term (who: NSI’s, governments, international organisations …) Organise international coordination for countries with a common history and shared migration systems (e.g. CIS countries, South-East European countries) (who: UNECE, IOM, CIS …) Organise political advocacy and mobilise resources for the 2010 round of Censuses to coordinate questionnaires and support NSI’s (who: NSI’s, PARIS 21, UNFPA, EUROSTAT) Pool the professional expert knowledge through coordinated technical assistance (UNECE/UNSD/EUROSTAT/UNFPA/ …) UNSC and UNECE-CES, Regional workshop on international migration statistics, 4-6 december 2007

Principles Take the UN recommendations as a reference But: Develop pragmatic and feasible solutions Respect regional and historical particularites Co-operate nationally and exchange internationally Take the needs of migrant sending countries seriously Take the constraints of migrant receiving countries seriously UNSC and UNECE-CES, Regional workshop on international migration statistics, 4-6 december 2007

Thank you!