Seminar on “Measuring Population Movement and Immigration in a Globalized World”

1. Seminar on “Measuring Population Movement and Immigration in a Globalized World” Draft Conclusions

2. Conclusions (1) • There is a general need for harmonised definitions and a harmonized methodology; this applies to all topics related to migration. • The upcoming questions require a combination of multiple sources to be applied – including administrative data and surveys. • These questions will require international and/or inter-institutional collaboration for obtaining best results (e.g. clearing house for mirror differences, data on diaspora questions).

3. Conclusions (2) • The statistical development work will mostly be demand-driven; it will require a strong collaboration between users, producers, and experts and will thus have to include politicians, statisticians, and researchers. • Special requirements will emerge, should the need of linking information to first and second-generation migrants arise.

4. Conclusions (3) • Migration has: • a demographic impact, • an economic impact, and • a social impact. • Users will determine the relative priority given to these impacts in the work programme. • Current statistical data need to be improved and widened to meet the additional requests.

5. Conclusions (4) • A multi-stage development effort will have to focus • in the first instance, on establishing a harmonized data set, which responds to the already established information requests; • in a second instance, on analytical work to be done with the newly created data – aiming at a continuous improvement of the data availability and quality and at to make these data to be more “policy-relevant”, and • in a third and final step, on agreeing on a harmonized international indicator set – taking on board all lessons learnt during development.