Migration in National Surveys

Survey Data Catalogue

New Follow how migration is covered in the 2010 round of world censuses

Survey Data Catalogue for Migration Studies

The Migration DRC has created a unique catalogue of existing household survey and census datasets that contain information about migration in developing countries. This catalogue – ‘Migration in National Surveys' (MiNS) – has two distinct features. The first key feature is its focus on migration, which to date is not available in any other web source or collection of household surveys. The second salient feature of MiNS is an additional focus on child migration.

The construction of the MiNS catalogue builds on previous work that the Migration DRC carried out in 2006. The project started with the compilation of a list of nationally representative household surveys in developing countries containing information about migration. This list subsequently formed the basis for an earlier version of the MiNS catalogue that did not contain a child component and was published on the website of the Migration DRC in September 2007. The current version of the catalogue highlights data and information that is relevant to the topic of migration in general for all surveys in the database. In addition to this general information, the catalogue highlights specific data and information relevant to the topic of child migration for a set of surveys after year 2000.

The catalogue is designed as a tool for academic and non-academic researchers who wish to use existing large household surveys to study the characteristics of migrants (adults and children) and analyse links between migration and poverty. Although the focus is on quantitative data on migration and socio-economic indicators of well-being, the catalogue may be useful as a complementary research tool for researchers from non-economic disciplines or those who specialise in qualitative methods.

MiNS is updated continuously but in its current stage, it includes the most recent data from Living Standards Measurement Surveys (LSMS), Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), Integrated Surveys (IS), Population and Housing Censuses (PHC) and Child Labour Surveys (CLS). Surveys can be searched by country, type of survey and by year. For each survey, we list the country, the year and the title of the survey. Links to the questionnaires and to the data (when these are accessible to the public) are provided, and when possible final reports summarising the key findings from the data published by the relevant agencies can also be found in the database.

Given the focus of the database on general and child migration, all sections of the questionnaires that contain questions on migration of household members, adults and children, are listed in detail. Further, the general and child migration related content of both questionnaires and key reports are summarised individually for each survey included.

More final reports and new surveys will be added regularly to the catalogues. The World Bank has provided the original list of data sources and a good overview of household surveys is available on the web page Accessing Surveys.

For detailed information on the catalogue, please look at the Information page and Survey Types page or proceed to the Survey Data Catalogue.