Methodology
Measuring migrant integration – framework
Stockholm programme
The Stockholm programme for the period 2010-14 embraced the development of core indicators for a limited number of relevant policy areas for the monitoring of the results of integration policies, such as employment, education and social inclusion. It is also a step forward to improve data comparability among Member States.
Zaragoza declaration
The 2010 European Ministerial Conference on Integration, which took place in Zaragoza, resulted in the Zaragoza declaration. It was adopted in April 2010 by the EU ministers responsible for immigrant integration issues and approved during the Justice and Home Affairs Council in June 2010.
The Zaragoza declaration identified several policy areas relevant to migrant integration and agreed on a set of common indicators for monitoring the situation of migrants and the outcome of integration policies. These are known as the ‘Zaragoza indicators’. For more information on the these indicators, please consult this background document.
The Zaragoza declaration called upon the Commission to undertake a pilot study to examine proposals for common integration indicators and to report on the availability and quality of the data from previously agreed harmonised sources necessary for the calculation of these indicators. The ministers agreed ‘to promote the launching of a pilot project with a view to the evaluation of integration policies, including examining the indicators and analysing the significance of the defined indicators taking into account the national contexts, the background of diverse migrant populations and different migration and integration policies of the Member States, and reporting on the availability and quality of the data from agreed harmonised sources necessary for the calculation of these indicators’.
The study resulted in the report Using EU indicators of immigrant integration. Existing and proposed indicators are largely based upon this report.
Data sources
Data used for the indicators on migrant integration come mainly from the EU labour force survey (EU-LFS) and the EU statistics on income and living conditions survey (EU-SILC). They are complemented by the European health interview survey (EHIS) and administrative data sources.
As regards the dimensions of employment and education, the data are based on the results of the EU-LFS.
The EU labour force survey (EU-LFS) is a large quarterly sample survey that covers the resident population aged 15 and above living in private households. It provides detailed quarterly and annual data on employment and unemployment, broken down along many dimensions, including age, sex, and educational attainment.
For migration, the dimensions country of birth, citizenship, country of birth of parents, and the reasons for migration are of significance.
In addition to the core variables, the EU-LFS also has so-called ad-hoc modules. These are a supplementary set of up to 11 variables, added to the core, on a clearly defined labour market relevant topic. Topics are chosen in cooperation between the national statistics institutes, various policy directorate generals of the European Commission and Eurostat, based on policy and analysis needs. The topic on the labour market situation of migrants and their immediate descendants has now been covered three times in the LFS ad hoc modules – in 2008, 2014 and 2021.
The EU statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC) survey is the main source for the compilation of statistics on income, social inclusion and living conditions. It provides comparable microdata on income, poverty, social exclusion, housing, labour, education, and health.
For migration, the dimensions country of birth, citizenship, and country of birth of parents are of significance.
It provides two types of annual data:
- cross-sectional data pertaining to a given time or a certain time period with variables on income, poverty, social exclusion and other living conditions
- longitudinal data pertaining to individual-level changes over time, observed periodically over a four-year period.
The European health interview survey (EHIS) aims to measure the health status, including disability, and health determinants, including environment. It also measures the use and limitations in access to health care services of the EU citizens on a harmonised basis and with a high degree of comparability among Member States. The EHIS data are provided every five years.
EU migration statistics are collected on an annual basis and are supplied to Eurostat by the national statistical authorities of the EU countries.
The collection of data has been based on EU regulation 862/2007 since 2008. Together with the Commission implementing EU regulation 351/2010, they define a core set of statistics on international migration flows, population stocks of foreigners, the acquisition of citizenship, residence permits, asylum and measures against illegal entry and stay. Most EU Member States base their statistics on administrative data sources such as population registers, registers of foreigners, registers of residence or work permits.
Coverage
The production of migrant integration indicators is generally done using on statistics based on samples, population registers/registers of resident foreign citizens, and other appropriate sources. The combined usage of LFS, SILC and EHIS data to derive migrant integration indicators is possible due to their high harmonisation. The surveys are also designed in such a way that the data comparability among EU members is optimised. However, for both types of data sources – administrative and survey data – there are certain limitations.
Statistics based on samples
With regard to survey data, limitations arise with respect to the coverage of migrant populations. By design, the LFS, SILC and EHIS target the whole resident population and not specifically the migrants.
Due to this, the results obtained should be interpreted with some caution.
Coverage issues of statistics based on samples arise in the following cases:
- collective households: the sample surveys only cover private households. Persons living in collective households and in institutions for asylum seekers and migrant workers are excluded from the target population. This might result in under-coverage of migrants in the sample survey. This needs to be borne in mind when carrying out statistical analyses and when interpreting indicators, both within a given country and between countries;
- recently arrived migrants: this group of migrants is missing from the sampling frame in every hosting country, resulting also in under-coverage of the actual migrant population in the LFS, SILC and EHIS;
- non-response of migrant population: a significant disadvantage of the surveys is the fact that a high percentage of the migrant population does not respond to them. This may be due to language difficulties, misunderstanding of the purpose of each survey or arduousness in communicating with the interviewer. It could also be due to fear on behalf of migrants of a possible negative impact on their authorisation to remain in the country after participating in the surveys;
- sample size: given the nature of the LFS, SILC and EHIS as sample surveys, these cannot fully capture the characteristics of migrants in EU members with very low migrant populations;
- information on country of citizenship and country of birth: this information is asked from all persons aged 15 or older in private households sampled in the LFS and EHIS and in the EU-SILC for those aged 16 and over. This results in an under-estimation of the number of migrants by country of citizenship and country of birth.
Administrative data
With regard to administrative data, one main problem refers to the comparability of the data used to estimate migrant integration indicators. The administrative data sources are not harmonised and there are also variations in methods and definitions.
For example, some countries produce estimates for the migrant population to account for non-response, while others leave this problem untreated.
Coverage gaps are reported by certain EU countries with regard to some types of excluded international migrants (e.g. asylum seekers). In other cases, there are significant numbers of departed migrants uncovered by the registration systems. There is also a different statistical treatment of migrants in illegal or irregular situation.