August 2018: A pilot study by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) shows how countries may report on the status of migrants, drawing on population census data. The report presents graphic visualizations of how countries can compare the status of migrants and native-born populations, and how they can discern trends over time.

The IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC) conducted the Pilot Study on Disaggregating SDG Indicators by Migratory Status, which uses 125 samples from 73 countries and two territories. It focuses on SDG indicator 8.6.1, which monitors the proportion of youth not in education, employment or training (NEET). Overall, the SDGs have 18 indicators relating to migration status. SDG target 17.18 calls for increasing the availability of data that is disaggregated by income, gender, age, ethnicity and migratory status, so as to “leave no one behind.”

The report explains there are de facto and de jure approaches to taking a national census. De facto counts include everyone present at the time of the census, but may overstate the presence of migrants, since the count includes temporary visitors, while de jure counts include those with formal status, but excludes seasonal and short-term migrants. Besides revealing the situation of migrant populations, the report highlights, census data about individuals are also needed for monitoring of more than 30 SDG indicators, including those that relate to fertility, mortality, access to basic services, and participation in and composition of the labor force.

The report recommends that countries should: use census data mainly as a self-assessment tool; include migration-relevant questions when taking a census, and make the census data available as early as possible; share data internationally to support SDG monitoring; prioritize which targets should be disaggregated by migratory status; and complement census data with other sources of information about groups that may be hidden from the public eye, such as undocumented migrants, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and victims of human trafficking.

GMDAC maintains a migration data portal to make international migration data available to government, media and the general public, as a contribution to evidence-based policies and informed public debate. The portal was launched in December 2017, and is supported by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and supported financially by Germany, US and UK. [Publication: Pilot Study on Disaggregating SDG Indicators by Migratory Status]