The open-access resource, known as FLOW, seeks to help governments and researchers understand how international migration patterns have changed over more than six decades.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Although data on where migrants live have been available for years, policymakers previously lacked a comprehensive record showing annual movements between countries. \u201cGood migration policy starts with good data,\u201d IOM Director-General Amy Pope said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cBy showing how migration has changed over time, FLOW can help us plan ahead and shape policies that better respond to the needs of migrants and communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The IOM developed FLOW with financial support from the German government and assistance from research partners.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Published in Nature Scientific Data, the dataset provides annual estimates broken down by sex for migration flows between countries over a 65-year period.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Researchers combined international migrant-stock data from the United Nations and World Bank with demographic information and observed migration flows.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Statistical modelling and machine-learning methods were then used to reconstruct historical annual movements in a format that could be compared across countries and time. \u201cEstimating historical migration flows is challenging because each data source only provides part of the picture,\u201d IOM Global Data Institute Data Scientist Dr Robert Beyer said.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhile uncertainties are unavoidable, the approach aims to extract as much information as possible from the available evidence to build a consistent picture of international migration over time.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
IOM said FLOW could support migration forecasting, demographic research, labour-market analysis and government policymaking.<\/p>\n
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The resource could be particularly useful in countries where direct migration records remain limited, incomplete or unavailable.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Germany Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development State Secretary Niels Annen said the initiative demonstrated the value of international cooperation. \u201cIt helps us see the long history of global migration more clearly and enables deeper analysis to inform more impactful policies and programmes in countries of origin and destination,\u201d Annen said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–IOM\/ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":33888,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-47530","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has launched the first dataset providing annual estimates of migration movements between every country worldwide since 1960.","published_date":"","news_description":"The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has launched the first dataset providing annual estimates of migration movements between every country worldwide since 1960.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/47530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/47530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47531,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/47530\/revisions\/47531"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=47530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}