On Revision of the UN Recommendations on Statistics of Migration (1998) and the Russian Context

Abstract

The article discusses the reasons for the 1998 revision to the UN recommendations on international migration statistics and related issues. Over the past 20 years since the publication of the Recommendations, there have been major changes in the nature of migration, the priorities of migration policy and the need for adequate statistics. The UN Expert Group Meeting on Migration Statistics in July 2019 raised some critical issues related to difficulties in meeting the conditions set out in the 1998 Recommendations and the persistent significant differences between countries in the availability and quality of migration data.Special attention is paid to the most vulnerable provisions of the Recommendations - the concept of the place of usual residence and time criterion used to measure long-term migration. The article also considers draft guidelines on statistics of certain types of migration – forced, labor and circular- through which international organizations are trying to fill the gaps in the 1998 Recommendations. Final part of the article is devoted to the situation in Russian official statistics of migration after the transition to the new methodology of data collection. It is concluded that the intention to meet the conditions laid down in the 1998 Recommendations, not supported by the technological state of administrative sources, has created new problems. It is suggested that revised statistical standards should be more flexible. It is also necessary to take into account external factors that influence the work of national statistical services in the development of migration statistics.