Estimating and Visualising Migration Flow Data

Nikola Sander1, Guy Abel1, Ramon Bauer1 & Johannes Schmidt2

1Wittgenstein Centre | Vienna Institute of Demography
2Null2, Berlin
Migration & Development Conference, June 2014
View the slides at http://nikolasander.github.io/oxford

Global migration has accelerated and diversified!

In the age of globalisation, migration has become:

Limited empirical testing of these assumptions!

Largely due to a lack of global flow data.

So, what data are available on global migration flows?

Most widely available are data on migrant stocks

Captured in censuses, registers and surveys

Comparing country of birth with country of current residence

Complete and harmonised datasets published by UN (1990-2010) and World Bank (1960-2000)

An accumulative measure of migration over several decades that cannot capture contemporary trends!

Migrant flow data much less widely available

Censuses only capture inflows, registers use varying definitions

Harmonisation exist for European flows (IMEM)

Outside Europe only unharmonised data for selected countries

Estimating flows from stocks

UN bilateral stock data

lifetime transitions

1990, 2000, 2010

more than 200 countries

New global flow estimates

5-year transitions

1990-95 to 2005-10

196 countries

A hypothetical migrant stock table for 4 countries, 2000

A hypothetical migrant stock table for 4 countries, 2000 & 2010

A hypothetical migrant stock table for 4 countries, 2000 & 2010

A hypothetical migrant stock table for 4 countries, 2000 & 2010

From stocks to flows

From stocks to flows

Estimated flow matrix

Estimated global flow matrix for 196 countries

The Emigrants of the World, 1858.

by Charles Joseph Minard

Conventional flow map

Migration within and between world regions in
1990-1995

Migration within and between world regions in
1995-2000

Migration within and between world regions in
2000-2005

Migration within and between world regions in
2005-2010

Intensity of global migration flows, 1990-2010

Total migrants in mio.
Crude migration rate

Crude migration rate

North America
Latin America
Europe
Fmr Soviet Union
West & South Asia
East & SE Asia
Africa

"The Global Flow of People" www.global-migration.info


Visualising remittances flows



Guy Abel & Nikola Sander (2014): Quantifying Global International Migration Flows. Science, Vol. 343, pp.1520-22.


Download the flow estimates, 1990-2010.



Interactive data visualisation"The Global Flow of People"


Contact

nikola.sander@oeaw.ac.at

@nikolasander

/