How fit is the available data on irregular migration for policymaking?
This policy brief, produced as part of the Horizon Europe MIrreM Project, is aimed at those engaged in evidence-based policymaking on irregular migration, providing an assessment and tips for use of available data on irregular migration.
Evidence-based policymaking is often considered a laudable goal – but applied to the field of irregular migration, there arise some principal challenges. Irregular migration is notoriously hard to measure as it occurs outside of regulatory norms and may often go undetected, while robust data and estimates are often non-existent, outdated or incomplete. Nevertheless, data are cited in policymaking in this area, where ‘illegal border crossings’ are used as a substitute, or outdated maximum estimates are used as a ‘low bar’ by future standards.
To read more, go to: https://zenodo.org/records/13757685.
To cite: Hendow, M., Wagner, M., Ahrens, J., Cherti, M., Kierans, D., Kraler, A., Leerkes, A., Leon, L., Rodríguez Sánchez, A., Siruno, L., Tjaden, J., Vargas-Silva, C. (2024). How fit is the available data on irregular migration for policymaking? MIrreM Policy Brief No. 3. Krems: University for Continuing Education Krems (Danube University Krems). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13757685.