Datasets on Irregular Migration and Irregular Migrants in the EU

Abstract

The evidence produced during the recent migration crisis in Europe is often based on datasets that have intrinsic limitations of coverage and availability, and that capture the complex phenomenon of migration from different perspectives. Simple questions such as “What is the number of migrants in the European Union (EU)?” cannot be answered by providing one single number, but a set of numbers where each number tells a different part of the story. Besides trying to expand the availability of data on migration, it is important to be aware of the characteristics of the existing datasets since knowledge of this determines the type of analysis and conclusions that can be drawn from the data. This paper describes the main datasets that can be used to quantify trends of irregular migration and indirectly also the stock of irregular migrants in the EU. The review covers only datasets that are openly available and have supra-national relevance.