An in-depth interactive webinar discussing the 1st objective of the Global Compact of Migration (GCM) as part of the ‘GCM sessions’ was held in October 2021. The session was organised by the Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA), the Global Research Forum on Diaspora and Transnationalism (GRFDT),Cross Regional Center for Refugees and Migrants (CCRM), International Institute of Migration and Development (IIMAD), and Metropolis Asia Pacific (MAP). The panellists who hailed from different sectors such as academia, non-profit and human rights organisations, as well as regional organisations were Ms. Estrella Lajom, a migration and diaspora expert representing ‘The International Data Alliance for Children on the Move’ (IDAC) of UNICEF; Ms. Sina Smid of the UNHCR, Prof. Irudaya Rajan, international migration expert and the Chairman of International Institute of Migration and Development as well as Chair of the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development and Prof. Binod Khadria from prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University in India. The panel was moderated by Ms. Paddy Siyanga Knudsen of GRFDT.
The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) is an intergovernmental agreement, prepared under leadership of the United Nations. The objective of the organisation is to cover “all dimensions of international migration in a holistic and comprehensive manner”. Signed in Morocco in 2018 the GCM has 23 objectives. The GCM’s first objective is to ‘Collect and utilize accurate and disaggregated data as a basis for evidence-based policies.’
The significance of data in informed policy making has been championed by the development sector in the recent years. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and their implementation have further emphasised the importance of data in the policy sector. The 2030 SDG agenda to ensure no one is left behind must include migrants. However, collecting data is a cumbersome task, even more so when it comes to migrants. Collection and disaggregation of data cannot be performed by governments alone, and hence international rights organisations, NGOs, and civil society must come together to achieve this. Disaggregated data is data that has been broken into relevant categories like age, gender, and other demographic indicators to provide a clear understanding of the subject at hand in order to make targeted and tailored policy decisions. Disaggregated migration data will guide policy makers to better understand the nature of migrants, their journey and their vulnerabilities to inform targeted policy decisions.
Child migrants as a significant subgroup of migrants
Starting off the discussion Ms Estrella of IDAC spoke about child migrants. To put the issue into focus she shared that 1 in 8 migrants are children. With children forming a significant the migrant population, data on them and their condition in the host country will help understand the experience of immigrants in host countries. She further shares that 2 in 5 people living in displacement is a child. It has steadily increased. Twice as many children are displaced within national borders than that are displaced across the border. Additionally, she states that children of different genders also face a difference in experiences as migrants. To showcase the dire lack of data on migrants, Ms. Estrella states that
“4 in 10 countries with data on migrants do not provide reliable data on age of the migrants. 9 in 10 countries that have conflict induced displacement does not disaggregate data by age”
Emphasising the need for data on child migrants, she states that, studying how children move will also help inform adult migration. She shares that the International Data Alliance for Children on the Move (IDAC ) – a cross-sectoral global coalition comprised of governments (including experts from national statistical offices and migration-relevant line ministries), international and regional organizations, NGOs, think tanks, academics, and civil society intends to build capacities of national governments to collect data on children on the move. The main objective of IDAC launched in March 2020 is to improve statistics and data on migrant and forcibly displaced children with the goal to support evidence-based policymaking that protects and empowers them. The IDAC now has18 member states which it intends to increase.
COVID-19 exposed the lack of migration data
What began as a health crisis soon escalated into a migration crisis as stark images of migrants being stranded across the world and internal migrants walking over days to reach their homes hit the news. Most countries grappled with the challenge of bringing their citizens back home. Most of these countries did not know how many citizens lived abroad and which countries they lived in. The lack of accurate data on migrants was brought to light. Several cases of this nature were witnessed in the Gulf – South Asian labour migration corridor. This situation has demonstrated the need for data on migrants. Dr. Irudaya Rajan who worked with the Kerala (in India) government in their efforts to reparation their citizens living across the world during the COVID-19 pandemic- states that India does not have data on its diaspora abroad. He stated that the governments data on migration numbers and migration corridors are “guess estimates more than estimates”. He goes on to share that Kerala was the only state in India which had data on how many expats from the state lived abroad and where they were put up. Adding to this Prof. Khadria emphasized on the perils on wrong data which would only lead to a false sense of confidence and wrong decision-making during catastrophic world events. He further urged that countries must be more transparent with the data that they have collected on migrants so far.
Progress in data collection
Following the signing of the GCM in late 2018, the COVID-19 pandemic which ravaged the world in the next 2.5 year has hampered the pace of data collection. Several organisations have collected data on migrants and displaced people over the years including several programs by the UN like the EGRIS Expert Group on Refugee and IDP Statistics data (set up in2016), World Bank, regional organisations and NGOs.
The UNHCR’s data transformation strategy goes beyond simply collecting data to also collate data collected by partner agencies, regional organisations and systematically archived them to make it available to the academics, practitioners, governments, and NGOs as well as share some data with the public. Speaking about the UNHCR’s Microdata Library- Ms. Sina the UNHCR’s regional data curator in Thailand states that “Peer learning and cross sharing of data information between countries is necessary to quicken the data collection process”.
The UNHCR’s Microdata Library containing microdata on persons of concern to UNHCR including refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced people (IDPs), stateless people and others. Microdata are unit-level data collected through census, registration/administrative exercises, and surveys. All datasets also include comprehensive metadata and supporting documents such as survey questionnaires and analytical reports to further aid researchers who use this data. While this data is available for use within the UN and other partner organisations. The programme also has a front facing data library which is accessible to the public; currently this library has over 300 data sets.
Discussing the accuracy of available data on migrants. It was pointed out that UN stock data on migration and that of countries don’t match. Discussing means of data collection, Prof. Rajan recommends the bottom-up approach to collect data. Ms. Paddy agreed and pointed out that including migrants in data collection process by speaking to them will enable us to understand their journey and their vulnerabilities will provide granular data that will translate to better informed policy decisions. Suggesting means of data collected, she commented that countries can begin data collection by recording people leaving their borders and use their consular network to register the entry of their citizens into other countries. Prof. Binod Khadria insisted that the primary task is to ensure data literacy. And organizations must begin by educating politicians and other stakeholders on the need for migration data and its use.
The session highlighted the linkages between GCM and SDGs and the significance of achieving GCM objectives to reach the SDG goals. Summarising Prof. Binod pointed out this session has helped in understating the limitations and challenges as well as the opportunities present in the field of migration data. Concluding, Ms. Paddy pointed out that countries should look at migrants as partners in development rather than looking at them as a burden. This will shift the mindset towards migrants and governments will begin collecting data.
Aarthi is a PhD research scholar at the Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani, Dubai Campus. She is a Migration and Development researcher whose areas of interest are labour migration to the Gulf, migration policy, and migrant entrepreneurship. She can be found on twitter handle @Aarthisundar.