UNECE Task Force on migration and ethno-cultural characteristics

1. International, internal migration and ethno-cultural characteristics: Proposed changes to CES recommendations UNECE Task Force on migration and ethno-cultural characteristics Geneva, 30 September – 3 October 2013

2. Overview • Chapter on Migration Characteristics • Discussion of proposed changes: Jane Badets • Chapter on Ethno-cultural Characteristics • Discussion of proposed changes: Ian White

3. International and Internal Migration: overview of results • In general, migratory movements are complex and can be difficult to capture in a single data set (such as the census or a register); • Most countries are collecting some information on this topic, whether traditional census-based or register-based; • Most commonly collected: country of citizenship, country of birth and information on internal migrants;

4. International and Internal Migration: overview of results (cont’d) • Recommendations are not always clear in terms of distinguishing between international and internal migrants for some topics: • Ever resided abroad and year of arrival in the country • Previous place of usual residence and date of arrival in the current place • Some confusion over temporal- like concepts (e.g. year and month of arrival) and whether total duration of residence in the county should/could be derived.

5. International and Internal Migration: overview of proposed changes • Current recommendations are quite comprehensive, covering a range of topics; • No major change to which topics are core and non-core: although some non-core topics were collected by a large number of countries; • No new topic emerged to be added to the list of current topics; • Proposed changes focus on: • clarifying concepts; • providing guidance related to the reporting of such items as dual/multiple citizenships, year of arrival, etc.

6. International and Internal Migration: areas of proposed changes • Population groups relevant to international migration: • Propose removing the term “foreigner”: focus on concepts of foreign-born/native-born; citizens/non-citizens; permanent/temporary residence status, where appropriate. • Country of birth: • Most use the UN Statistical Division classification; of those who did not the classification prescribed by the EU Census Regulations was used. • “Former“ countries an issue in terms of coding, but no clear solution?

7. International and Internal Migration: areas of proposed changes (cont’d) • Country of citizenship: • Concept of citizenship collected varied; • Many collect information on dual/multiple citizenships; • Suggestion to follow Eurostat guidelines, and report according to “first” and “second” citizenship: But how easy would this be to collect? • Ever resided abroad and year of arrival: • Need to clarify that these concepts refer to international migrants, as well as returning nationals; • Suggest that different concepts could be collected for year of arrival, such as the year of immigration or the year permanent residency was granted. • County of previous usual residence abroad: • Should this be a core topic as large number of countries now collect it?

8. International and Internal Migration: areas of proposed changes (cont’d) • Total duration of residence in the country: • Intended to capture duration of residence for multiple or circular migrants; • Question whether this information can be derived (as suggested by the current Recommendations)? • Previous place of usual residence and date of arrival in the current place: • Clarification needed to distinguish this concept from “Ever resided abroad and year of arrival”; • Reduced vs. extended mode: misses some migratory movements; countries need guidance on the fact that one or the other mode could be collected (not all countries collect both modes).

9. International and Internal Migration: areas of proposed changes (cont’d) • Year and month of arrival in the current place: • Confusion with year of arrival in the country concept; • Should this concept be removed, and expanded if necessary in the description of year of arrival in the country concept? • Reason for migration: • A number of countries collect this information (census-based); • Often multiple reasons were collected; • Reasons were expanded slightly to reflect the information collected. • Remaining non-core topics (e.g. birthplace of parents; citizenship acquisition): no changes recommended.

10. International and Internal Migration: areas of proposed changes (concluded) • No new topics emerged, some countries raised these topics: • Emigration; • Length of intended stay to distinguish short vs. long-term international migrants; • Birthplace of grandparents; • Was the work performed by immigrants in line with their qualifications; • Issues with people born before the Second World War, yet treated as foreign-born because of boundary changes.

11. Ethno-cultural Characteristics: • Ian to add his slides