Priorities in International Migration Research: The Case for a World Migration Survey, Again….

Ellen Percy Kraly , Colgate University

During the last years there has been a growing recognition that traditional tools of data collection and registries miss a significant part of migrant flows and stocks and are not able to provide insights on the migratory dynamic, that is its determinants and consequences. The call for timely, reliable and comprehensive data on international migration has been made not only by experts and researchers but also by policy makers and international organizations. The Global Compact for Migration has clearly stated as one of its objectives to collect and utilize accurate and disaggregated data as a basis for evidence-based policies; and the inclusion of migration in the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals also calls for an improvement on data on international migration. Advocacy and argument for a World Migration Survey (WMS) as a means to overcome some of the limitations of traditional sources of data has regained impulse in the last years. In 2017, the IUSSP Ad Hoc Panel on strengthening migration data, research and training stated in its intervention to the consultative phase for the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration that “Governments and other stakeholders should consider launching a World Migration Survey, which would be a timely initiative.”

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 Presented in Session 78. Flash Session Migration and Migrants