1. ILO/EC PROJECT «R EGULATING L ABOUR M IGRATION AS AN I NSTRUMENT FOR D EVELOPMENT AND R EGIONAL C OOPERATION IN C ENTRAL A SIA » Labour Migration Data Collection and Statistic System in the Republic of Tajikistan Review of current sources and methodological aspects Parviz KHAKIMOV

2. MAIN OUTCOMES Labour Force Survey ( LFS) and Household Income Survey ( HIS) can be a good sources fo information giving socio economic and demographic characteristics of migrant workers. A more detailed surveys of WB ( such as the Living Standard Survey), special survey on labour migration of IOM and others can only improve the informational space and fill in the information gap on labour migration.

3. M AIN I NDICATORS OF L ABOUR M IGRATION IN I NTERNATIONAL P RACTICE : 1. Number of citizen abroad including men and women 2. Employment of migrants by sex and citizenship. 3. Employment of migrant workers by sectors of the economy 4. Employment of migrant workers by status and professional category 5. Volume of remittances in USD 6. Number of irregular migrant workers

4. S TATISTICAL I NDICATORS AT M ICRO L EVEL IN I NTERNATIONAL P RACTICE 1. Per capita income 2. Per capita expenditure/consumption 3. Wages in origin country by level of education 4. Wages in the country of destination by level of education 5. Wages in the country of destination by regular and irregular status of migrant workers 6. Wages by sex and age

5. S OURCES OF I NFORMATION ON E MIGRATION AND I MMIGRATION - C URRENT G APS, W EAKNESSES AND C HALLENGES

6. Diagram of data collection and information flow on migration in Tajikistan MIA Ecological migration and voluntary population transfer External labour migration– statistical forms T- 1 и T-2 and T-3 Refugee statistics MOLSP Permanent external and internal migration SSC RT

7. Sources of Statistics on Labour Migration Administrative sources Other sources SSC  Data from population census  Statistical forms T-1, T-2, and T-3 based on the data from migration cards of MS MIA RT SSC  Household Living Standard Survey ( quarterly)  LFS( 2004, 2009) Border Control Agency  Statistics of border control ( not used) International Organizations  WB Living Standard Measurement Survey ( LSMS) ( 1999, 2003, 2007)  Other surveys MIA  Statistics of work permit ( relates only to foreign migrant workers in RT)  Registration on place of residence  Statistics of issuance of foreign passports MFA  Consular statistics NBT  Remittances from external labour migration  Statistics of foreign migrant workers in RT

8. U SE OF S TATISTICAL D ATA ON M IGRATION SSC Publication website: www.stat.tj Mass Media Other state Structures NGO Business Presidential Office MOLSP MEDT International Organizations

9. Основные проблемы и нужды Lack of IT specialists Lack of coordination between ministries and agencies Lack of financial resources Lack of program software Lack of a unified informational space Absence of correspondence with international norms and requirements Improve methodological basis Capacity building for data collecting and processing

10. MAIN OUTCOMES Disadvantages exiting in the labour migration data based on migration cards and other systems can become advantages if corresponding measures are taken into account. Population census. Population census cannot serve as a source of information on labour migration if additional modules on labour migration are not developed and applied. Household Survey It is necessary to conduct households surveys on a quarterly basis at least with 1% coverage of households for the whole country.

11. MAIN OUTCOMES Unpurposefull source of information can be considered the household survey conducted by MoLSP because the data collection is made by the chairperson of sub districts where there is a lot of underreporting and under recording. In addition this practice does not correspond to international norms of statistics on population movement where the methodology and methods of survey is not clear. For example, the filling of questionnaire forms is done by an official person for all the households which puts under doubt the reliability of the collected data.

12. MAIN OUTCOMES Statistics of border control and migration cards of MS MIA RT There is a need for better coordination between MS MIA RT and border control and an agreement for the establishment of a unified data base between the agencies for the purpose of getting an aggregated data which excludes redundancy and under recording. It is necessary to concentrate on the data of population movement through state border and as practices of many countries indicates migration cards should be required by border control staff. Development of automatic data entry of migration cards and following the rules of their filling. Do not use a manual method of processing the data from migration cards which requires a lot of time and has the risk of data loss during transfer and processing.

13. MAIN OUTCOMES Establishment of a unified program software which cannot allow for the repeating transfer of one person through state border during certain period ( e.g. quarterly, biannual, annual), record of border crossing by the frequency of arrival and departure, and purpose of border crossing since not all those crossing the borders are labour migrants. The program software should be developed in such a way that will allow to obtain the following tables: age and sex of labour migrants by country of origin, age and sex of labour migrants by purpose of the visit, intended duration of stay by sex and age, marital status by sex and age, economic status before departure and types of occupation before departure by sex and age, by duration of stay abroad and others.

14. MAIN OUTCOMES It is necessary to equip all border check points with corresponding equipment, program software connected to the unified data base and conducting training courses for those involved in the system It is necessary to establish a unified data base where all information on border crossing will be stored on a daily basis which will later be processed on a monthly, quarterly, biannual and annual basis for the purpose of getting an aggregated data.

15. MAIN OUTCOMES Work Permits Work permit for emigrants at the moment cannot serve as a complete and reliable source of information because labour exporting companies constitute a small proportion of the total number of migrant workers. At present it is necessary to think of a mechanism of data transfer from labour exporting companies in RT to the Agency for Statistics based on the specialized forms. In the future this mechanism can become a reliable source of information on labour migration.

16. MAIN OUTCOMES Issuance of visa Data from the issuance of visa for immigrants can only cover those who are regularly arriving in the country. For those with an irregular status, those who do not get work visa but are involved in employment, the existence of border mayatnikovaya migration are left out of sight and becomes the reason for under recording. Refugees, who are in the territory of RT and stateless person can also become economically active. Refugees and stateless person not having the status of labour migrants and not having work visa are included in the overall number of migrant workers which may become the reason for the increase in the number of foreign citizen involved in employment. Consequently statistics of these category of migrant workers is also left out of sight and will become another reason for the under recording.

17. MAIN OUTCOMES Consular statistics At the moment introducing this mechanism requires huge financial and human resources because labour migrants from Tajikistan have a wide geographical coverage in the territory of Russian Federation. This system could successfully work if labour migration from Tajikistan was directed towards the countries with which the country has visa regime such as South Korea and Persian Gulf countries. However the system is necessary since after a five year period the citizen of RT and their children should register at the consular departments otherwise they can lose the citizenship of RT. In order for this to not happen either legislation should be changed to exclude the timeframe for registration or the mechanism of registration should be improved.

18. MAIN OUTCOMES Economic and financial sources of information Remittances of labour migrants is a good source of information and has an affluent statistical system. However if data processing is improved according to the volume of remitted money and compare it with the results of surveys on labour migration such as the volume of one time remittances, frequency of remitted money, duration of stay there is a high probability of an indirect assessment of the proportion of remittances to the total volume of remitted means and identification of the number of migrants workers during different time intervals, country of destination including others The possibility for the comparison of data from different sources allows for a more complete outcomes and also accepting or rejecting certain assumptions. However it should not be forgotten that as many studies indicates not all migrant workers are remitting money.

19. MAIN OUTCOMES Other sources Issuance of foreign passport is not a source of information about labour migration.. Registration of foreign migrant workers нin the territory of RT can also be a good source of information. However not all nonresidents employed in the country are registering their business within tax administration or register it in the name of the native population. For this reason this source of information at present cannot be considered as a source of information on labour migrants from RT. However in the future with a decrease in informal economy it has the potential to become a good source of information on labour migration.

20. RECOMMENDATIONS There is need to developed a unified data base on labour migration with technical and financial support from international organizations. Depending on a technical support from international organizations and donors it is necessary to conduct a cost assessment of this unified database based on the best examples of other countries. The government of the country should consider for the establishment of a coordination center where all information will flow, processed, and disseminated. Ministry of finance should look for the financial resources to create additional positions for the ministries or agencies that will have the leading role in this coordination center.

21. RECOMMENDATIONS Ministry of finance of RT after identification of the responsible ministry or agency for coordination center should review similar positions within other involved government structures in order to maximize the cost effectiveness of the budget expenditure. The ministry of finance might reposition the employees within other government structures that are performing activities related to statistics of labour migration and place them in the newly created structure. International as well as other interested organizations in improving the statistics of labour migration should look for the possibility to support the center in training of specialists involved in collection and processing of data, acquisition of new computer technology for border control agency, program software for the full functionality of the system.

22. THANK YOU!