The case for a world migration survey

Abstract

Research and evidence-based policymaking on migration are currently held back by a severe lack of knowledge. Two years after a vast majority of states adopted the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM), most of the data needed to monitor its implementation and impacts are missing. Moreover, the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic which has affected all corners of the globe and radically changed migration patterns, raises new questions and challenges in the intersecting domains of migration and public health. Traditional demographic data collection tools (censuses, surveys, registers, administrative records) overlook significant dimensions of migration processes, and innovative approaches based on social media and other sources of big data are still in their infancy. The proposed World Migration Survey (WMS) will generate comparative information with the aim of informing a wide range of policy-relevant debates on the levels, characteristics and dynamics of migration, its causes and consequences, particularly across the global South.