Doc. MedDC/2011/2.2 ANNUAL MEETING OF THE DIRECTORS OF THE NSIS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN ENP COUNTRIES Hilton Hotel Istanbul 13 April 2011 Migration -The MED-HIMS project EUROSTAT, MEDSTAT III, the World Bank and UNHCR Point 2.2 on the Agenda 1
A. Background 1. In a regional workshop organized by the MEDSTAT II Programme in Wiesbaden in March 2008, all participating countries except Israel called for the implementation of a household migration survey to overcome the lack of data on international migration from the MED region by collecting reliable and representative data on the characteristics and behaviour of migrants. The workshop also requested MEDSTAT II to develop Model Questionnaires (MQs) that could be used for coordinated Mediterranean Household International Migration Surveys to be undertaken under a new project (MED-HIMS). 2. Following these recommendations, Project Documents for conducting such surveys were prepared by the national statistical offices (NSIs) in Egypt, Jordan, the occupied Palestinian territory and Syria with direct assistance by MEDSTAT II experts. These project documents included a request for technical assistance and external funding from the EC and/or other donors. The four countries also agreed that these migration surveys should be implemented within a regional coordinated survey programme. Interest in the proposed MED-HIMS was expressed later by Algeria, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia. 3. The methodological frameworks and the first draft of the MQs for MED-HIMS were discussed in three regional workshops held in Brussels, Cairo and Marrakech from February to September 2009. The work was undertaken by MEDSTAT II in collaboration with the MED NSIs, EUROSTAT and the World Bank and several national and international entities in the Euro-Mediterranean Region (see Annex 1). 4. The draft MQs available at that stage were adapted to national needs and used in the Palestinian National Migration Survey, an operation undertaken in spring 2010 by PCBS with financial support from the UN and EC. Despite the degree of diversification and the operational constraints given by the political circumstances, the Palestinian survey demonstrated the feasibility of the MED-HIMS and addressed to the further methodological improvements, in particular on the criteria for selecting respondents within a same household. 5. Following the start of MEDSTAT III in May 2010, an international MED-HIMS Coordination Committee and a technical Manual Panel with the participation of EUROSTAT, MEDSTAT III, the World Bank and UNHCR were launched to supervise the further development of MQs and the preparation of survey manuals through additional funding. A regional workshop on MED-HIMS was held in January 2011, back-to-back to the MEDSTAT III Migration Task Force, and endorsed the further coordination between the involved countries and institutions, the development of survey instruments and possibly the coordinated implementation of surveys. 6. As a result of this joint work and consultation, the MED-HIMS proposal aims today to collect data in the MED countries on the determinants and consequences of international migration focusing in particular on out-migration, return migration, 2
forced migration and intentions to migrate, as well as on circular migration, migration of highly-skilled persons, irregular migration, type and use of remittances, behaviours, attitudes, perceptions and cultural values of people with regard to international migration. Gathering information on socio-economic status of the household and on characteristics of local communities in sample areas is also planned. This would represent the collection of reliable and representative multitopic, multi-level, retrospective and comparative data on the characteristics and behaviour of migrants. B. Possible steps and arrangements towards the implementation of coordinated surveys 7. The organisation and implementation of the MED-HIMS in the different countries will depend on the different degree of readiness of the NSIs of the MED countries, their current workload, and future operations, in particular plans for the next population censuses, as well as the availability of financial means. Two phases of implementation of simultaneous and coordinated surveys were tentatively proposed: the first covering four countries in the Middle-East (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria), and the second covering the three Maghreb countries (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia), with data collection taking place in summer 2012 and 2013 in the two groups of countries respectively. 8. In order to concretise a similar plan, it is now necessary to start organising the survey operations in selected countries in the second half of 2011. Based on the current availability of financial support provided by MEDSTAT III and the World Bank and what can be expected from the UNHCR and other international institutions, the MED-HIMS Coordination Committee has identified the following steps towards the implementation of the first phase: - Continuing the preparation and reviewing the survey manuals; - Developing the Project Document for the MED-HIMS Programme, including the budget and the establishment of a MED-HIMS Central Implementation Unit responsible for managing such a regional survey programme and providing technical assistance; - Updating the national project documents previously prepared in 2008 for Egypt, Jordan and Syria, and preparing the project document for Lebanon by September 2011, - Organising national workshops and TA missions to the participating countries for the adaptation of the MQs to national needs and preparing the sampling design and the pre-test from October to December 2011, and - Undertaking training and main field work in the participating countries in 2012. 9. The second phase (in the Maghreb countries) should ideally start in 2012, depending on funding and other conditions such as the implementation of the national population census. In fact, a major time constraint for the implementation of the MED-HIMS in both groups of countries comes from the possible overlap with the preparation of next censuses, which are planned in 2014 in Jordan, Morocco, Syria and Tunisia. 3
10. According to the above, at this stage it is fundamental to secure funding for the implementation of MED-HIMS in the seven MED countries and for the establishment of a MED-HIMS Central Implementation Unit. Preliminary estimates indicate that the international funding needed to implement the project amounts to about 4 million euro, depending on the number of participating countries and modalities of implementation. 11. The proposed MED-HIMS project has received positive feedback from international and national institutions, although significant direct contributions have so far been provided by the MEDSTAT Programme, the World Bank and UNHCR only. Among the institutions consulted in the last months, the UNFPA Regional Office for Arab States has expressed UNFPA readiness to collaborate in sponsoring the implementation of MED-HIMS in a number of countries. The amount of UNFPA financial contribution has not been decided yet; however, it would come from the regional funding assigned to the national programmes of participating countries with the possibility of further funding from the Global Fund. Currently EUROSTAT, MEDSTAT III, the World Bank, UNHCR and UNFPA are ready to jointly develop a Project Document for the MED-HIMS Programme, including an estimate of the required technical, human and financial resources for endorsement of potentially interested MED countries. 12. The EC, the World Bank and UNHCR jointly considered to call for a stakeholders meeting involving UNFPA and other institutions such as ESCWA, ECA, the UN Population Division, UNICEF, IOM, ILO, PARIS21, the League of Arab States, the Arab Labour Organization, etc. 13. If mandated by the NSIs of the MED countries, this meeting could also involve potential donors of funding for the surveys, such as the IsDB (Islamic Development Bank), AfDB (African Development Bank), AGFUND (Arab Gulf Fund for the United Nations Development Organizations), AFSED (Arab Fund for Social and Economic Development), Abu Dhabi Development Fund. If given the mandate by the MEDSTAT Directors Committee meeting, this MED-HIMS Stakeholders and Donors Meeting could potentially be held back-to-back to The 5th Forum on Arab Statistical Capacity Building, an event supported by PARIS21 and other national and international institutions and initiatives, which is expected to be held in July 2011. 14. The DGs of interested countries are requested to consider the following issues: To endorse the preparation by the MED-HIMS Coordination Committee of the Project Document for the MED-HIMS programme, including a proposal for the establishment of a Central Implementation Unit; To mandate the MED-HIMS Coordination Committee for the mobilisation of donors to support this initiative. 4
Annex - Summary overview of MQs and related manuals (as of March 2011) The proposed MQs for MED-HIMS aim to collect data in the Mediterranean countries on the determinants and consequences of international migration focusing in particular on out-migration, return migration, forced migration and intentions to migrate, as well as on circular migration, migration of highly-skilled persons, irregular migration, type and use of remittances, behaviours, attitudes, perceptions and cultural values of people with regard to international migration. Information on socio-economic status of the household and on characteristics of local communities in sample areas will also be gathered. The MED-HIMS project will thus aim to overcome the lack of data on international migration from the MED-region by collecting reliable and representative multi-topic, multi-level, retrospective and comparative data on the characteristics and behaviour of migrants. The MQs are designed to meet a number of objectives which may be summarized as follows: - To collect data in order to understand the nature of MED-migration and the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of migrants; - To collect data on migration histories and the migration experiences and practices, including the case of forced migration (the migration asylum nexus, secondary movements, conditions in host countries, returns and intentions of refugees and people in need of international protection); - To collect data on migration intentions and potential destination; - To assess the impact of migration on household socio-economic behaviour and practices; - To assess the impact of remittances and their utilization and their impact on socio-economic development in the MED-region; - To assess the impact of migration on unemployment and labour dynamics; - To assess the impact of migration on the skill-level of return migrants; - To assess the overall awareness of migration issues and practices; - To assess migrants future plans; - To elucidate the processes leading to the decision to migrate; - To evaluate the effectiveness of governmental interventions aiming at preventing illegal migration; - To develop specific methodologies for collecting and analyzing international migration data; and - To improve data utilization by promoting and encouraging their use by planners, policy makers, and managers of international migration and development programmes. 5
The MQs being developed include the following seven questionnaires 1 : MQ-1: The Household Questionnaire MQ-2: Individual Questionnaire for Out-migrant MQ-3: Individual Questionnaire for Return Migrant MQ-4: Individual Questionnaire for Non-migrant MQ-5: Individual Questionnaire for Forced Migrant MQ-6: The Household Socio-economic and Environmental Conditions Questionnaire MQ-7: The Community Characteristics Questionnaire The experts participating in the workshops and development of MQs have discussed at length a number of fundamental issues, including responding to both national and international data requirements, the criteria for eligibility for the various survey interviews, the concept of multi-level eligibility, the formulation of specific questions, the classifications and coding of variables to be applied, and the proposed sampling and data collection procedures. For all participating countries, the MED-HIMS will make the following manuals available 2 : M1 - Model Questionnaires M2 - Survey Design and Organization Manual M3 - Instructions to Supervisors M4 - Instructions to Interviewers M5 - Manual on Sample Design M6 - Coding and Recode Specifications Manual M7 - Manual on Guidelines for Principal Country Report: Part 1: Statistical Tabulations Part 2: Data Analysis 1 Draft questionnaires MQ-1 to MQ-6 have been released in the technical meetings. MQ-7 is still to be fully developed as of March 2011. 2 M1 is to be validated, M2-M5 are in preparation, M6 and M7 are to be prepared as of March 2011. 6