1 Counting immigrants and expatriates : a new perspective (Published in « Trends in International Migration » OECD 2005) Jean-Christophe Dumont and Georges Lemaître Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, OECD ECE-Eurostat Seminar on International Migration, Geneva March 2005

2 Concerns related to the international mobility of the highly skilled : Limited availability of statistics on expatriates, especially by level of education and occupation Problems in the comparability of immigrant stocks - among OECD member countries - from developing countries Rationale for the project OECD Directorate for Employment Labour and Social Affairs, DELSA BackgroundMethodologyImmigrants and expatriates Next steps

3 OECD Directorate for Employment Labour and Social Affairs, DELSA An international database on Foreign-Born Data collection and compilation 29 OECD National Statistic Offices and OECD Observers : UN Statistics Division, Eurostat, European Commission, ILO, UNECE Data collection and compilation Data are mainly from OECD population censuses and population registers Data were compiled on : - Immigrant population in OECD countries - Expatriate population from all countries to OECD countries - Migrants by origin / destination and educational attainment BackgroundMethodologyImmigrants and expatriates Next steps

4 OECD Directorate for Employment Labour and Social Affairs, DELSA Definitions The immigrant population A literal definition => persons who have immigrated into their current country of residence => persons born abroad Includes persons born abroad as nationals of the current country of residence Takes no account of possible past migration movements of persons currently resident in their country of birth Does not include native-born persons of immigrant parents Alternative definition => the foreign population Classification of persons can change Confounded by possibility of multiple citizenships Does not necessarily reflect a migration movement BackgroundMethodologyImmigrants and expatriates Next steps

5 OECD Directorate for Employment Labour and Social Affairs, DELSA Definitions Reference population Usual residents by detailed country of birth, nationality and nationality at birth Working rule for countries of birth People born in states or territories belonging to the country of residence are considered as “native-born” Education level (population 15+) Less than upper secondary (ISCED 0/1/2) Upper secondary and post secondary non-tertiary (ISCED 3/4) Tertiary (5a/5b and 6) BackgroundMethodologyImmigrants and expatriates Next steps

6 OECD Directorate for Employment Labour and Social Affairs, DELSA Limits Data on stocks represent the cumulative effect of net migration flows over past decades Imperfect, heteregenous and unknown coverage of certain categories of migrants : undocumented migrants, temporary migrants, asylum seekers … Some persons with unknown country of birth and/or educational level Specific hypotheses for some countries (Japan, Korea, Germany) Problems for decomposed / recomposed countries of origin BackgroundMethodologyImmigrants and expatriates Next steps

7 OECD Directorate for Employment Labour and Social Affairs, DELSA 7 Statistics on foreign born population in OECD countries provides a new -and more accurate- picture of migration BackgroundMethodologyImmigrants and expatriates Next steps Percentage of Percentage foreign born of foreigners AUS CAN CZE FRA GRC NLD SWE USA

8 OECD Directorate for Employment Labour and Social Affairs, DELSA 8 A significant share of foreign born in OECD countries originate from other OECD countries (36.3 million people or 46% of all foreign born) BackgroundMethodologyImmigrants and expatriates Next steps

9 OECD Directorate for Employment Labour and Social Affairs, DELSA 9 The incidence of expatriation varies substantially from one country to another BackgroundMethodologyImmigrants and expatriates Next steps

10 OECD Directorate for Employment Labour and Social Affairs, DELSA 10 Highly skilled international migration is an important part of all migration flows Native-born Foreign Born Expatriates CAN CHE FRA HUN KOR NZL SWE USA Percentage of persons with tertiary education in selected OECD countries BackgroundMethodologyImmigrants and expatriates Next steps

11 OECD Directorate for Employment Labour and Social Affairs, DELSA 11 Asia, Europe and Africa are the major regions of origin for highly skilled BackgroundMethodologyImmigrants and expatriates Next steps

12 OECD Directorate for Employment Labour and Social Affairs, DELSA 12 Within the OECD area, only eight countries are net beneficiaries from the migration of the highly educated... BackgroundMethodologyImmigrants and expatriates Next steps

13 OECD Directorate for Employment Labour and Social Affairs, DELSA 13 … but, as whole, most OECD countries benefit from the international mobility of the highly skilled BackgroundMethodologyImmigrants and expatriates Next steps

14 OECD Directorate for Employment Labour and Social Affairs, DELSA 14 Some countries, especially in the Caribbean and in Africa, face significant emigration rates of their elites (sometimes exceeding 50%) BackgroundMethodologyImmigrants and expatriates Next steps

15 OECD Directorate for Employment Labour and Social Affairs, DELSA 15 BackgroundMethodologyImmigrants and expatriates Next steps The database is available online on the OECD website The next phase of the project involve collection of more detailed information on demographic (gender, age, duration of stay) and labor market variables (employment status, occupation, sector of activity) Data to be used for studies on specific occupations (e.g. Health; ICT; Education) Extending the database to selected non-member countries ?