Transcript Workshop Conclusions and Recommendations Towards better Evidence on Migration and Development in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Capacity-building Workshop on Migration Statistics Almaty, Kazakhstan, 31

Workshop Conclusions and
Recommendations
Towards better Evidence on Migration and
Development in Eastern Europe and Central Asia,
Capacity-building Workshop on Migration Statistics
Almaty, Kazakhstan, 31 October- 1 November 2013
• The HLD on Migration and Development has
illustrated the high demand and need for data
to support evidence based policy decisions.
• Labour migration continues to remain an
important issue for the region.
• There is a need to improve measurement of
and promote the positive impact of migration,
while measuring and mitigating its negative
impact.
• There is no debate on if migration affects
development, but the question is how it
affects development.
• Migration should be included in the post
2015-development agenda.
• Migration-related indicators developed for the
post-2015 agenda should be limited in
number, directly related to goals, and within
the capacity of countries to produce.
• There should be greater coordination between
data collecting agencies to help improve the
quality and harmonization of data.
• Indicators to measure the social pillar should
include measures on family, health, education,
and gender.
• It is often difficult to differentiate between
environmental and other reasons for
migration.
• There was no agreement that environmental
migration is a major concern for the region,
particularly with regard to its relationship to
development.
• Indicators should be developed in close
cooperation between policy makers and
statisticians.
• In the region, ambiguity and politicization of the
term “migration” can lead to misunderstanding
and affect data quality.
• There is a need to assess the impact of
migration on migrants themselves, as well as
for countries of origin and destination, in
particular its contribution to the social and
economic pillars of sustainable development.
• Countries should use readily available
remittance indicators and they should be
included in the post-2015 development
indicators.
• Migration indicators should be mainstreamed
into existing indicator groups for monitoring
development progress, while separate
migration-related goals could also be created.
• Remittances continue to be an important
source of national and household income in
the region and contribute to reducing poverty.
• Efforts should continue to be made to improve
the quality of data on remittances.
• Household surveys are important to improve
measurement of the impact of remittances, as
well as fill gaps in data reported by central
banks.
• Household surveys should be harmonized to
increase data quality and comparability,
including questions to measure remittances.
• Several financial-related indicators were
identified, including those related to costs of
migration, financial literacy, savings strategies,
and entrepreneurship.
• Goals and indicators related to foreigners in the
labour force were discussed. Duration of stay,
education, economic sector, citizenship,
language skills, demographic characteristics,
income, and remittances were deemed important
for measurement.
• Goals and targets still need to be better
developed, consulted, and harmonized.