Phil. Migration and Development Statistical Almanac - How international migration statistics are compiled

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How migration statistics are compiled

How international migration statistics are compiled

Thursday, 18 December 2008

The Philippines has developed a sophisticated set of statistics about its citizens abroad, at least before migrants leave and when migrants are in host countries. Generally, migration (covering internal and international migration) is a challenging population process to quantify because the fluidity of migration movements—either by air, land, or sea—makes the situation difficult to track down.

But the Philippines is among the most advanced worldwide in terms of developing multiple-level statistics on the international migration phenomenon. The government even has a technical working group that periodically evaluates the data being produced, as well as the technical details surrounding the coverage of the data as per the type of overseas emigration by Filipinos.

Data generators. Given the many types of overseas Filipinos, as well as the fluidity of their documented and undocumented movements, many agencies are involved in the collection, recording, and processing of the country’s international migration statistics. Data sources on the international migration of Filipinos come from both the Philippines and from host countries.

In the Philippines, the major data gathering offices are the agencies involved in the country’s management of overseas migration flows (the roles of these agencies, as well as the data they gather, will be explained in the migration and development statistical almanac). These homeland-based government agencies produce administrative data (i.e. data of processed temporary contract workers and permanent residents about to leave the Philippines), survey data, and even national population registry. The agencies in the homeland include:

Commission on Filipinos Overseas;
Department of Labor and Employment;
Philippine Overseas Employment Administration;
Overseas Workers Welfare Administration;
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas;
National Statistics Office;
National Statistical Coordination Board;
Department of Tourism; and
Bureau of Immigration and Deportation.

Overseas, the embassies and consulates that all fall under the Department of Foreign Affairs are providers of estimates on the number of Filipinos in certain host countries. The sources of these datasets include: immigration or border statistics, population registers, and residence permits. Most of these Philippine diplomatic missions use the statistics offices of host countries (especially those situated in developed countries that have sophisticated Census datasets). The embassies and consulates also have information on the number of Filipinos who have availed of their services (e.g. passports, birth certificates, dual citizenship applications).

The table below lists down the sources of datasets on overseas Filipinos:

Table 1: Philippine government agencies and migration data-capturing mechanisms

Data-capturing agency	Data source	Type of data	Frequency of release of a complete dataset
Commission on Filipinos Overseas(CFO)	Stock estimates on overseas Filipinos (compilation of data on all overseas Filipinos from all data sources in the Philippines and abroad) Data on registered emigrants, permanent residents, and Filipino/a spouses of foreign partners	Administrative	Annual
Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA)	Data on deployed land- and sea-based migrant workers	Administrative	Annual
National Statistics Office (NSO)	Survey on Overseas Filipinos (SOF) Labor Force Survey Family Income and Expenditures Survey Census of the Population and Housing	Survey	SOF: annual (period of coverage is April-September of every year) LFS: quarterly FIES: every three years Census: every five years (though the last Census was done seven years after the 2000 Census)
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)	- Cash remittances through formal channels - Remittances in both formal and informal channels	Administrative	Formal remittances Monthly (although data are two months behind) Combined formal and informal remittances: Annual
Department of Tourism (DOT)	Tourism statistics (to also include overseas Filipinos)	Administrative	Annual
Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA)	Data on deployed land-and sea-based migrant workers who are OWWA members (OWWA is POEA’s source of data for migrant workers coming from the regions and provinces)	Administrative	Annual
Philippine Retirement Authority (PRA)	Returning Filipinos who have availaled of Special Retirement Retirees Visa	Administrative	Annual
Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and its embassies and consulates in 80-plus countries worldwide	Estimates on the number of documented and undocumented Filipinos in countries of jurisdiction (citing data from within the embassies/consulates and from host countries’ statistical offices)	Administrative	Annual

Data sources in the Philippines. The major data gathering offices are the agencies involved in the country’s management of overseas migration flows. The Department of Labor and Employment is a major agency, alongside its attached agency the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration. Temporary contract workers (both newly-hired and re-hired) are the jurisdiction of the two agencies. A related agency, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (the welfare-focused agency for temporary contract workers), has some datasets of temporary contract workers who paid their per-contract membership fee of US$25. Meanwhile, the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (then under the Department of Foreign Affairs, or DFA, and now under the Office of the President) handles permanent residents and immigrants (Jeremaiah Opiniano, 2006).

Another agency, the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation, handles records of Filipinos and foreigners who pass through air and sea ports. Some government officials involved in harmonizing international migration data have mentioned that BID cannot use embarkation and disembarkation cards to record the number of exiting and returning Filipinos (especially in airports). But raw data on departing and returning foreigners and overseas Filipinos are available at the BID. Migration scholars have long recommended that the BID systematize its data on departing overseas Filipinos (Benjamin Carino, 1989).

The National Statistics Office is the main agency under the National Economic and Development Authority that is into gathering relevant data on overseas Filipinos. NSO uses three sets of household and income surveys related to Filipinos abroad: the quarterly Labor Force Surveys (which is 72 pages thick), the annual Survey on Overseas Filipinos or the SOF (which is a rider to the October round of the LFS), and the triennial Family Income and Expenditures Survey. The SOF is the most important survey instrument for NSO in regard to getting data on overseas Filipinos, particularly their demographic information and remittance behavior.

There are also other related agencies that are part of the data tracking machinery for overseas Filipinos. One is the Philippine Retirement Authority, which records the number of returning Filipinos who have availed of what are called the special retirement retiree’s visa. Another agency relevant herewith is the Department of Tourism, which records foreigner and overseas Filipino tourists arriving to the country. DOT has national-to-provincial-level data.

Available data from Philippine diplomatic missions abroad. Overseas migration statistics are also being tracked from host countries. DFA is central in this task since it coordinates the work of 80-plus embassies and consulates worldwide —all of which are trying their best to provide estimates of the number of Filipinos in the host country/countries that they cover. The sources of these datasets include immigration or border statistics, population registers, and residence permits (United Nations Statistics Division, 2006).

Many of these diplomatic missions use the statistics offices of the host countries, especially those situated in developed countries that have sophisticated Census datasets as well as Census data ferreting software (e.g. the United States, Canada, Australia, European countries). Some statistics offices of host countries have various variables-cum-labels about foreigners, such as foreign workers, foreign-born population, the population born to families of mixed races, among others.

Philippine diplomatic missions abroad also have information on the number of Filipinos who have availed of their services (e.g. passports, birth certificates, dual citizenship), and these missions include these numbers into the estimates being reported annually to the Philippine government.

Finer details on how some of these agencies capture international migration statistics can be found on these links at the website of the Philippine Institute of Development Studies: