At Davos forum, UN agency launches report spotlighting benefits of investing in better migration data

24 January 2018 – Investing in value-based migration data that squarely focuses on impact can benefit the world to the tune of $35 billion dollars, according to a new report launched Wednesday in Davos, Switzerland, by the United Nations migration agency.

A study by the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC), working with the McKinsey Centre for Government, found that better use of data will help turn human mobility into an asset worth tens of billions of dollars.

“Too often, data are seen as the abstract business of experts operating in backrooms,” IOM Director General William Lacy Swing told the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, draws thousands of top business and global political leaders to discuss the most pressing issues facing the world.

“Yet data are essential to produce real-life results, such as protecting migrants in vulnerable situations, fill labour market shortages and improve integration, manage asylum procedures, ensure the humane return of migrants ordered to leave or increase remittance flows,” he added.

The report, entitled More than Numbers: How migration data can deliver real-life benefitsilluminates how investing in migration data can bring huge economic, social and humanitarian benefits.

Providing detailed calculations of benefits across a range of policy areas in both developed and developing countries, More than Numbers demonstrates clear examples of how better data can help manage migration more effectively.

The report also provides guidance to countries interested in realising these benefits and suggests ways in which they could develop their own strategies to improve data on migration.

For example, many European Union (EU) migrants have skills that do not match their jobs. The report calculates that using data to reduce over-qualification would increase their income by six billion Euro.

UN Member States have started 2018 negotiations towards adopting a Global Compact for safe, orderly and regular migration. Consultations leading up to them have highlighted the importance of improving evidence on migration. - Read More
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At Davos forum, UN agency launches report spotlighting benefits of investing in better migration data