| Documentation: | European Statistics 2013 |
| Document: | Eurostat: Technical Documentation |
| citation: | Social Explorer; Eurostat 2013: Technical Documentation |
This domain comprises series of long-term international immigration and emigration during the reference year. Immigrants and emigrants are disaggregated by age group, sex, citizenship or country of previous/next residence. Since 2008 migration data by single age and immigration data by country of birth are also available.
The data sources are administrative records or national surveys. For some datasets statistical estimation methods are applied.
Data are presented country by country and for groups of countries.
The completeness of the tables depends largely on the availability of data from the relevant national statistical institutes.
For details on data sources used for compilation of statistics on immigration and emigration and for more country-specific data descriptions see Annexes attached.
"Immigration" denotes the action by which a person establishes his or her usual residence in the territory of a Member State for a period that is, or is expected to be, of at least 12 months, having previously been usually resident in another Member State or a third country;
"Emigration" denotes the action by which a person, having previously been usually resident in the territory of a Member State, ceases to have his or her usual residence in that Member State for a period that is, or is expected to be, of at least 12 months;
"Usual residence" is the place at which a person normally spends the daily period of rest, regardless of temporary absences for purposes of recreation, holiday, visits to friends and relatives, business, medical treatment or religious pilgrimage, or, in default, the place of legal or registered residence;
"Immigrant" is a person undertaking an immigration;
"Emigrant" is a person undertaking an emigration;
"Citizenship" denotes the particular legal bond between an individual and his or her State, acquired by birth or naturalisation, whether by declaration, choice, marriage or other means, according to national legislation;
"Country of birth" denotes the country of residence (in its current borders, if information is available) of the mother at the time of the birth or, in default, the country (in its current borders, if information is available) in which the birth took place;
Indicators available: Immigration/Emigration flow into/out of the reporting country during the reference year by sex, age (group), citizenship, country of birth, or country of previous/next residence of migrants.
Data until 2008 were collected on the basis of a gentleman's agreement.
From 2008 onwards the annual migration data collection is under the requirements of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council on Community statistics on migration and international protection.
Data are requested from national statistical institutes as part of the Joint Annual International Migration Data Collection. This data collection is administered by Eurostat, in cooperation with the United Nations Statistical Division, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, and the International Labour Office.
A Migration Metadata and Quality Questionnaire is developed by Eurostat to ensure availability of metadata on interantional migration and monitoring of the compliance of Member States with the requirements of Articles 3 of Regulation 862/2007. As given in the Article 9 of the Regulation, Member States must report to Eurostat on the data sources used, the reasons for the selection of these sources and the effects of the selected data on the quality of the statistics. Where estimations are applied to the data, Member States should report on the estimation methods used. Member States should also inform Eurostat of any changes that are made to data sources and methods used.
Member States compile requested data under Article 3 of the Regulation 862/2007 by following the guidelines and intructions provided by Eurostat. Before publishing the data, consistency validation checks are performed.
International migration flow data are based mainly on administrative sources or national surveys. For some datasets statistical estimation methods are applied. Certain differences in definitions and practices of producing migration statistics exist between countries but by following Regulation 862/2007 (the first reporting year is 2008) and Eurostat's guidelines the reporting countries are improving the availability, accuracy and comparability of the data.
The internal coherence of the data is ensured through systematic validation checks.
For more country-specific quality issues see the attached Annexes.
Every effort is made to collect comparable data. However, a number of different concepts, definitions and data sources are used in different countries which can make comparisons between countries difficult and occasionally misleading.
Certain countries are unable to supply some or all of the data requested by Eurostat.
Explanatory notes by countries are provided in the Annexes.
Improvements and changes in the administrative systems and statistical methodology may cause breaks in the time series. Please consult the explanatory notes by countries provided in the Annexes.
Data are compiled by national statistical institutes.
Depending on the methodology of the reporting country, data sources are administrative records or national statistical surveys. For some datasets statistical estimation methods are applied. Most of the countries use administrative sources for compilation of migration data (population register, register of foreigners, database on issued residence permits etc.).
For more country-specific details on data sources used for compilation of immigration and emigration statistics see the Annexes at the bottom of the page.
Annual
The statistics are collected by national statistical institutes and supplied to Eurostat. Data are requested from national statistical institutes as part of the Joint Annual International Migration Data Collection. This data collection is administered by Eurostat, in cooperation with the United Nations Statistical Division, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, and the International Labour Office.
A set of standardised validations are applied by Eurostat before publishing the data.
EU and other aggregares are calculated by Eurostat where data are available for all Member States concerned.
The EU migration aggregate is calculated as a sum of the inflows and outflows reported by each Member State from/to countries outside the EU. The reported cases of unknown country of origin/destination are left apart and not included in the calculated EU aggregare.
