International Migration Statistical Awareness Seminar 19th March 2004 Giles Horsfield Senior Researc

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International MigrationStatistical Awareness
Seminar19th March 2004Giles HorsfieldSenior
Research OfficerMigration Statistics
UnitPopulation and Demography Division
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International Migration

• Definitions
• Data sources- overview
• International Passenger Survey
• Other data sources
• International migration- trends since 1991
• Key publications and uses of data
• Future developments
• Questions?

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Definitions

• International Migration
• Civilian migration between the UK and the rest
  of the world, including the Republic of Ireland -
  movements of Armed Forces are excluded
• International Migrant
• A person who changes his or her country of usual
  residence for a period of at least a year

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Data Sources

• International Passenger Survey (IPS) migration
  data
• International Passenger Survey (IPS) visitor data
• Home Office information on Asylum Seekers
• Estimates of migration between UK and Republic of
  Ireland
• Methodology was revised following the results of
  the 2001 Census, after research into available
  data sources

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Part of the IPS questionnaire
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International Passenger Survey

• Continuous voluntary sample survey
• Conducted by ONS since 1964
• Tourism, Balance of Payments, and Migration
• Covers principle air, sea Channel Tunnel routes
• Approximately 0.2 of all travellers sampled-
  immigration filter shifts increase sample size
• Based on intentions to migrate

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Other components of international migration

• Asylum seekers and their dependants calculated
  from Home Office data
• People who change their intended length of stay.
  Allowance made for
• Visitor switchers
• Migrants switchers
• Irish flows data from Central Statistics Office
  Ireland
• IPS migration data combined with other sources to
  produce estimates of total international
  migration

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Trends in total international migration since 1991
Net gain
Net gain
Thousands of migrants
Net loss
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Key publications and uses of data

• Data published
• First release in November
• Annual reference volume (29 April 2004)
• Population Trends
• International migration data feed into
• Mid-year population estimates
• National population projections
• English subnational population projections
• For information contact Migstatsunit_at_ons.gov.uk

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Future developments

• National Statistics Quality Review on
  international migration, commissioned before 2001
  Census results were released
• Made recommendations for data, methods and
  outputs of UK International Migration statistics
• Implementation plan published in January 2004
• Aimed at improving
• estimates of total migration flows
• distribution of international migrants to UK
  regions

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• Questions?

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Recommendations for improving migration
statistics include

• Further development of International Passenger
  Survey (IPS) questions on intended versus actual
  length of stay, and on short-term versus
  long-term migrants
• Enhancing the IPS sample size for emigration
  estimation
• Improved combining of IPS and Home Office data
• Use of household surveys and administrative data,
  in combination with the IPS, to distribute
  immigrant inflows geographically
• Migration statistics needs to feed into the
  development of the Continuous Population Survey
  and the 2011 Census