Statistics on International Migration. A Practical Guide for Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Geneva : United Nations Economic Comission for Europe, 2012.

Choudinovskikh O.

Academic editor: Valente P.

Migration is a powerful driver and important consequence of economic, political and social change. Because of its great impact on societies, migration needs to be adequately measured and understood. Reliable statistical data is the key to the basic understanding of this important phenomenon. Yet, in many countries, even the most general statistics on migration are incomplete, out-of-date or do not exist. Improvement in this area requires knowledge of the principles of collecting, compiling and analyzing migration statistics. Likewise, policymakers and other users need to be aware of the definitions and measurement issues related to the data to be able to interpret them. The present guide was prepared under the responsibility of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe in the framework of the project “Strengthening national capacities to deal with international migration: maximizing development benefits and minimizing negative impacts”. The project involved all five regional commissions of the United Nations and was financed from the United Nations Development Account. The guide is intended for practitioners and professionals whose work is related to migration and migration statistics. It focuses on the specific context of migration processes in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. We expect that the practical examples and international recommendations presented herein stimulate interest and improve understanding and facilitate production, dissemination and use of statistics on international migration.

Keywords: миграция, migration, sources of data on migration, statistics on migration, статистика миграции, источники данных о миграции