IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ces/ifosdt/v59y2006i14p03-12.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Migration to Germany - how reliable are the statistics?

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas Straubhaar
  • Barbara Dietz
  • Johann Hahlen

Abstract

Great attention has been given to migration to Germany and the integration of migrants into German society, and statistical information on migration and on migrants living in Germany is urgently needed since, in order to develop a successful migration policy, empirically grounded knowledge is necessary. Only if the data basis is sufficiently reliable can policy proposals be formulated. In this point all the experts agree. But how well-founded and internationally comparable is the information that the statistics provides? Thomas Straubhaar, Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI), underlines, first of all, that at the international level tremendous differences sill exist: "In spite of many efforts that have resulted in respectable improvements, migration data are only conditionally consistent internationally and comparable only to a limited extent. Between the migration statistics of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Eurostat or OECD, there are huge gaps." Also for Barbara Dietz of the Munich Eastern Europe Institute, migration in Germany raises the question of whether cross-border movements are adequately registered, whether the data are internationally comparable and whether the results of migration, can be reliably estimated. Johann Hahlen, Federal Statistical Office, points out in his contribution that even if the statistic gathering is carried out reliably, some unclarity is inevitable since the underlying data sources are primarily used for administrative and not statistical purposes. Improvements of the data quality are meant to be achieved particularly by the new micro census of 2011 but also by the full implementation of the data exchange obligation between the general registration offices and the alien registration authorities.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Straubhaar & Barbara Dietz & Johann Hahlen, 2006. "Migration to Germany - how reliable are the statistics?," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 59(14), pages 03-12, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:ces:ifosdt:v:59:y:2006:i:14:p:03-12
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ifo.de/DocDL/ifosd_2006_14_1.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Aydin, Yaşar, 2012. "Emigration of highly qualified Turks: A critical review of the societal discourses and social scientific research," Edition HWWI: Chapters, in: Paçacı Elitok, Seçil & Straubhaar, Thomas (ed.), Turkey, migration and the EU, volume 5, pages 199-227, Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI).
    2. El-Cherkeh, Tanja & Tolciu, Andreia, 2009. "Migrant entrepreneurs in Germany: Which role do they play?," HWWI Policy Papers 3-8, Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ces:ifosdt:v:59:y:2006:i:14:p:03-12. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ifooode.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.