International Migration Panel activities

July-August 2021 

Members of the IUSSP Panel on International Migration: Strengthening the Knowledge Base for Policy continue to advance the themes of panel through writing, convenings, conference participation and trainings.  

In May 2021, “The Case for a World Migration Survey” was published by the IUSSP as Policy and Research Paper No. 25.  Authored by Panel members, Marcela Cerrutti, Philippe Fargues, and Mariama Awumbila, the paper sets out the rationale – and timeliness – of reinvigorating the argument for internationally, and regionally, comparable data and measures of international migration and mobilities to address causes and consequences of international migration and population movements.  Building on the Panel’s record of engaging population scientists at regional professional meetings, IUSSP Council member Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi and IUSSP Panel chair Ellen Percy Kraly coordinated a Round-table discussion, “Advancing a global survey on migration: Perspectives from Asia" at the 5th Asian Population Association Conference, 3-5 August 2021.  Facilitated by Diego Iturralde (Statistics South Africa) and Ellen Percy Kraly (Colgate University), the roundtable began with a brief summary of the IUSSP Policy and Research Paper by its authors, followed by commentary from by Professor Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi (University of Tehran), Professor Yu Zhu (Fujian Normal University) and Frank Laczko (Director, Global Migration Data Analysis Center of the International Organization for Migration).  The Roundtable stimulated a broad discussion of priorities in international migration research among attendees, including graduate students, in conversation with session participants.

Also at the APA conference, Professors Abbasi-Shavazi and Kraly made a presentation on “Refugee and Forced Migration in Asia: Implications for Research and Training” in the session on International Migration. Relatedly, Panel member Guy Abel continues to deliver trainings on measurement, estimation and analysis of migration including a five-day session for a Statistics Korea-UNFPA summer seminar series. 

Themes of the Panel concerning national and international policy relevance of demographic research on international migration were also addressed by Ellen Percy Kraly during the Voluntary National Review (VNR) process of the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), organized by the United Nations Network on Migration in July. Encouraged by IUSSP Panel member Bela Hovy to articulate a scientific perspective for the VNR Lab on Migration, Ellen Kraly addressed three dimensions of the intersections between the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM): (i) linkages between VNR and the Review Forum of the GCM;  (ii) thickening the foundation of demographic data regarding migration in relationship to the goals for sustainable development; and (iii)  the relevance, role and value of stakeholders within civil society, specifically, academia and scientific organizations, to the VNR process and more generally the implementation of the GCM.