Methods to Improve Measurement of Migration in European Countries

1. 62nd plenary session of the Conference of European Statisticians Seminar on migration statistics Session 2: “Methods to improve the measurement of migration” Session organisers: Rosstat and CIS-Stat Irina Zbarskaya CIS-Stat Paris, 10 April 2014

2. Contributions offered • Azerbaijan - “International migration statistics in Azerbaijan”; • Estonia and Finland - “Measuring cross border mobility between Estonia and Finland with mobile positioning datasets”; • Finland- “Improving emigration statistics in the future”; • Italy- “Integrating data for integrating migrants. A multisourse approach to migration statistics”; • Kyrgyzstan-”Migration statistics in Kyrgyzstan; • Mexico - “International migration in Mexico and its statistics”; • Norway - “Forecasting migration in official population projections using an econometric model”; • United Kingdom - “Improving local area estimates of international migration using administrative data”; • CIS-Stat - “Labour migration in the Commonwealth of Independent States region: challenges of and approaches to improving statistical information”; • Eurostat - “Filling the ’migration gaps’ – can research outcomes help us improve migration statistics?” 2

3. Country paper AZERBAIJAN State Migration Program has been approved Unique Migratory and Information System "one-stop-shop principle" (UMIS) Data exchange State Migration Service State Border Service State Statistical Committee Ministry of Internal Affairs Ministry of Justice population censuses + sample surveys + currently data sources of migration + administrative data +creation of the population register 3

4. Country paper • ESTONIA and FINLAND • Cross border commuting using passive mobile positioning data • Estonia • Finland • Various statistics to describe mobility: • number of visitors • number of visits • number of days • number of nights • Visitors are divided: • 1 day visitors • 2 – 30 days visitors • 31+days visitors • 183+days visitors • According to the common definition (WTO), a visitor who is staying in other country for 183 days or more is considered a foreign labourer 4

5. Country paper FINLAND Inter-Nordic agreement on population registration before now Migration document Information between Nordic authorities is transferred in electronic form How to improve emigration statistics in EU? One solution would be to issue international ID to all persons in EU The receiving countries could send this ID code to the country of departure 5

6. Country paper ITALY The goal - developing a systemic approach to studying migration ISTAT Samplesurveys Ministry of Interior - statistics on residence permits Administrative data from the same source Administrative data from other sources Surveys + Administrative data micro-data towards integration Perspectives - migration within the Union: of EU citizens + of non-EU citizens European system for monitoring of migration flows “Governance of immigration on European level is only possible if based on shared definitions, metadata and figures” 6

7. Country paper KYRGYZSTAN Data sources: • population censuses • sample surveyssocio-demographic and economic • currently data sources of migration characteristics of external and • administrative data internal migrants • In futurecreation of the population register 7

8. Country paper MEXICO International migration: a) the flow of Mexicans to the USA; b) the immigration of foreigners to Mexico; c) the transit of foreigners - mostly Central Americans – through Mexican territory to the USA; d) the voluntary and involuntary return of Mexican migrants to Mexico; е) the voluntary and involuntary return of Central Americans migrants to their countries of origin through and from Mexico; f) the cross-border labour flows between Guatemala and Mexico and with the USA. System of statistical tools and analysis of migration processes National Institute of National Institute of Center for U.S.Census Statistics and Geography Migration Migration Studies Bureau -Censuses; -Survey on Migration -Model to estimate -Current Population -Survey on Migration at the Nothern at the Nothern Border transit migration Survey Border of Mexico; of Mexico through Mexico -Аmerican -National Survey of Occupation Community Survey and Employment; -National Survey of Demographic Dynamics 8

9. Country paper NORWAY Forecasting gross immigration to Norway until 2100 Western countries Eastern EU membersNORWAY Rest of the world Projected total immigration in the medium variant, including estimated prediction intervals 9

10. Country paper UNITED KINGDOM TheMigration Statistics Improvement Programme “ThenewapproachusedadministrativedatasourcestodistributetheEnglandandWalesimmigrationtotalsfromtheInternationalPassengerSurvey (IPS) directlyto Local Authorities“ worker mappingeachstreamto the most ‘reasonformigration’relevant administrative sources IPS student whichwere used to distribute immigrantstoeachlocalauthority other Data exchange DepartmentforWorkandPensions HomeOffice ONS DepartmentofHealth Department of Business, Innovation and Skills Welsh Government HigherEducation Statistics Agency 10

11. IO paper • EUROSTATand CIS-STAT papers: • Cross-country comparisons gaps in mirror migration statistics. Reasons: • different definitions of ‘immigrants’ and ‘emigrants’, • different statistical coverage, • differences in the statistical treatment of temporary migrants, • lack of consistency in classifying migrants by country of origin/destination, • differences between countries in the data sources and methods of collection used. • The number of immigrants from country A measured in destination country B can differ from the number of emigrants to country B measured in country of origin A. • Improving national/original migration statistics population size and structure • What would be the status of information - statistics or estimates – in case of implementation of the data adjustment methods? • Would it be relevant to use this adjusted data only for inter-countries comparisons or this adjusted data can be used for the “internal” purposes? • Single concept of “population” for international statistical purposes, including a common definition of “migration” and “labour migration” • Migration statistics within of the economic or political associations 11

12. Conclusions • Diversity of migration flows and a high level of “latent” migration require compilation of information from statistical and administrative sources of data • Development of information technologies, including modern communications, creates new opportunities for migration measurement • Formation of economic and political unions of countries often reduces barriers for general and labour migration and thus influences migration statistics. Advantages of such unions do not reduce the problem of measuring migration, and new approaches to this problem solution are required • The ultimate accuracy in migration measurement demands maximum harmonisation of basic definitions related to population migration to address the need for comparative data across countries • Today the value of migration data is increasing in proceeding with population estimates and demographic forecasts 12

13. Questions to countries 13

14. Questions to countries 14

15. Common questions • Combining administrative and statistical data enriches information on migration flows and migrants ' characteristics. What difficulties have you encountered combining data from these different sources? • Is it worth implementing methods of adjustment of national statistical data on migration when differences in mirror statistics between the “partner countries” are identified? • What would be the status of information - statistical data /estimation – in the event data adjustment methods were used? Would it be relevant to use this adjusted data onlyfor inter-country comparison or could they be used for the purposes of official statistics in a given country? 15

16. Thank you 16