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Learning objectives
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Summary
Whereas Part 1, Chapter provided an overview of key concepts in migration data and their definitions, this chapter will provide more guidance on a) how to measure international migration (and emigration), temporary mobility, internal migration, return migration and circular migration; b) the core indicators that countries are advised to compile; and c) the ways in which these indicators are to be disaggregated. The chapter will take into consideration the revised conceptual framework on international migration statistics, introduced in 2021 by the UN Expert Group on Migration Statistics, which emphasizes 1) new criteria for measuring residence; 2) the importance of disaggregating by Country of Citizenship and Country of Birth; and 3) that international migration is a component of international mobility, which also includes temporary mobility. While this chapter will focus on the measurement of concepts that are exclusively defined based on time and space, Part II, Chapter 3 will focus more on concepts that refer to the nature or reasons migration, such as labour migration, forced displacement and irregular migration.
With regards to the key reporting indicators, the UN Expert Group advises countries to produce data on the stock, inflow and outflow of foreign-born foreigners, native-born foreigners, and foreign-born citizens who are international migrants, i.e., they have been residing, or intend to reside in the country for at least 12 months or most of the last 12 months (meaning at least six months and one day). The same indicators should be reproduced for ‘movers’ or those who have been residing or intend to reside in the country for at least three months but less than the minimum threshold for establishing residence. All indicators should be further disaggregated by country of citizenship, country of birth, age, sex, and reason for migration, previous country of residence (for inflows) and next country of residence (for outflows).
Data on internal migration, return migration and circular migration are generally limited as there are no authoritative criteria for measuring these concepts, even though they may be particularly relevant depending on the context. Internal migration can be forced or voluntary, the former type being more extensively defined by statistical actors such as the Expert Group on Refugee and IDP Statistics (see Chapter 3). Measuring internal migration is complicated by the lack of convergence on the minimum distance and minimum duration of the move. A key recommendation for measuring internal migration is recording a respondent’s place of residence at the smallest geographic administrative unit (which could eventually be aggregated to a higher level). Return migration refers to persons who have become residents after having been residents abroad (bearing in mind the revised criteria for measuring residence) and might be measured by asking for one’s place of residence one and five years prior. Finally circular migration refers to persons who have completed three moves, i.e., emigration-immigration-emigration or immigration-emigration-immigration, between two or more countries, for a minimum duration of at least three months in each country during a ten-year period (UNECE, 2016).
Experiences of migration and the risks and opportunities associated with migration are likely to differ according to one’s gender, age, race or ethnicity and disability. While many countries currently disaggregate key migration indicators according to sex, disaggregating by gender (or publishing gender-disaggregated data) is not common practice. Therefore, this chapter will also cover the conflation of sex, gender and sexual orientation, the recommendations for collecting sex and gender-disaggregated data, the challenges of collecting such data and the protection requirements that need to be in place. In addition, this chapter will also provide recommendations for disaggregating by age and disability and conclude by highlighting the importance of intersectionality.