Forum
Improving Migration, Remittances and diaspora data: SDGs and the Global Compact on Migration
When : Jan 16, 2018 Time : 11:00am-12:30pm Venue : Room CCT, OECD Conference CenterLocation : Paris, France

Event description:

More disaggregated data will be important for monitoring the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Global Compact on Migration. Improving data on internal migration, Internal Displace Population (IDPs), refugees, migration and climate change, diaspora, and remittances is needed. For example, few countries know the number of their skilled migrants living abroad or where they have gotten their degree. It is time to develop an approach to collect, analyze and use migration data to devise policies based on facts.

Most countries lack systematic and comprehensive data collection systems on the impact of migration. Investment in migration data is indispensable to advance our understanding about the complex relationship between migration and development and to inform policy formulation. In the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, Member States recognized the importance of improved data collection, particularly by national authorities, on the economic impact of migration and committed to enhancing international cooperation as well as capacity-building, financial support and technical assistance in this regard.

Reliable data on migration, remittances and diaspora is hard to come by. There is need for more realistic projections of international migration by extending and refining the tested demographic multiregional demographic model. New models take into consideration the interaction between sending and receiving countries (see Buettner and Muenz 2017) into the multiregional projection model. This requires moving beyond net migration as the dominant concept in international population projections and implementing (international) migration as flows/transitions. It is now possible to replace the emigration-based conceptualization of migration in multiregional demographic models by introducing the receiving country as an additional factor determining the level of international migration flows.

While the International Monetary Fund publishes statistics on “personal transfers, and compensation of employees”, these data are neither comprehensively reported nor do they capture flow of remittances that take place outside of formal financial channels. Good data is needed on remittance flows, magnitude of flows by corridor, cost of remittances, and the amounts sent at each price. Some data are available, but significant gaps remain. Perhaps the most difficult aspect of tracking remittance data is estimating informal flows. One way to estimate the true size of remittances is to undertake surveys of remittance senders and recipients.

Diasporas can be an important source of trade, capital, technology, and knowledge for countries of origin and destination. However, no country knows where its diaspora is and what their attitudes toward its country.

This session will be organized as follows: the first panelist will present an overview of the state of play of demographics and migration. The next panelist will discuss new methodologies for including migration in demographic projections. A third panelist will discuss migration, remittances and equity in the use of migration and remittance household surveys. Finally, the fourth panelist will present the Handbook for Improving the Production and use of Migration data.

Visit forum website here.

Speakers

Chair
Sonia Plaza
Sonia Plaza
  • co-chair Diaspora
  • KNOMAD
  • World Bank
Panelists
Rainer Muenz
Rainer Muenz
  • European Political Strategy Centre (EPSCC)/European Commission- Chair of Data and Demographics of KNOMAD
  • Migration and Demographics
  • latest trends
  • Rainer.MUNZ@ec.europa.eu
Thomas Buettner
Thomas Buettner
KNOMAD consultant
Flore Gubert
Flore Gubert
  • DIAL (Développement Institutions et Mondialisation)
  • Institut de Recherche pour le Développement
  • Contributions of migration and remittances in Africa
  • flore.gubertpsemail.eu
  • Gubertdial.prd.fr
Ann Singleton
Ann Singleton
KNOMAD consultant
Lisa Anderson
Lisa Anderson
Economist