Mónica Martí

Migration Estimation Based on the Labour Force Survey: An EU-15 Perspective

It can be observed in the research that the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU LFS) only allows a satisfactory estimation of the stocks of non-nationals or those born abroad in some countries, whereas it proves to be less than adequate in most of them with regard to migration flows. We believe that this very limited success is due to a twofold statistical problem of imprecision and bias, which is intensified by the embarrassing question of answer impossible. These difficulties exist among the Member States to a greater or lesser degree, depending on the characteristics of the migratory domain and the particular features that the EU LFS acquires in each country.

La nueva Estadística de Migraciones: una buena elección por parte del INE

The Spanish Institute for National Statistics (INE) has decided to create new Migration Statistics (Estadistica de Migraciones) based upon Residential Variation Statistics (Estadistica de Variaciones Residenciales). This article presents arguments to support this decision, in view of the continued lack of consistency found among the sources of the Spanish statistics system for measuring population mobility. Specifically, an insight is provided into the problems of underestimation and internal inconsistency in the Spanish Labour Force Survey when measuring immigration rates, based upon discrepancies identified in the three international immigration flow series produced by this survey.