Experts will gather in Chisinau from 10-12 September to discuss how to better utilize administrative data sources and censuses to improve the measurement of migration and its impact, and how to reach “hard-to-count” migrant populations. They will also decide on concrete follow-up activities to be undertaken at the international level. This Work Session on Migration Statistics is organized jointly by UNECE and Eurostat, in partnership with the National Bureau of Statistics Republic of Moldova, under the auspices of the Conference of European Statisticians.
As the 2010 round of censuses comes to a close, the census remains an important source of data on migration. Countries including the United Kingdom, Turkey, Tunisia, Switzerland, Italy and the Republic of Moldova, will share their experiences from the recent census. Discussions will not only include results and trends in migration patterns from recent censuses, but also methodological issues related to migration, such as coverage, measurement, combining traditional censuses with administrative data sources, or other challenges related to the measurement of migration using population censuses.
A number of initiatives have pushed for better utilization of administrative sources to measure migration. Countries will discuss their experiences in this regard, including sources used, the quality of these data, and what challenges remain to fully realize their potential.  New administrative data sources and data improvement and collection initiatives in the Russian Federation, the Republic of Moldova, Spain, Slovenia, Italy, Tajikistan, Belarus, and Azerbaijan will be discussed.  The session will also look at ways to improve communication between national statistical offices and agencies that produce administrative data, particularly from a United Kingdom and Italian perspective.
 Finally, improving the measurement of international migration continues to be challenging for the international statistical community, particularly the collection of data about migrant groups like short-term, temporary, and circular migrants, irregular migrants, and emigrants. Although these groups are often at the centre of public debate, their number is difficult to accurately assess via regular data sources, either because they fall outside regular data collection methods, their records are less formalized, or because their very presence entails a legal violation. Participants will discuss the issue of difficult to measure migrants, including return migrants to Albania and Lithuania, emigrants from Hungary and Norway, as well as an initiative towards coming to a common statistical definition of circular migration.  
For more information, please visit: http://www.unece.org/stats/documents/2014.10.migration2.html