Nadia Touihri

Senior Director of Statistics and Social Studies

National Institute of Statistics, Tunisia

Touihri.nadia@ins.tn

Measuring International Migration through

census 2014 in Tunisia: what improvements have

been adopted?

Economic Commission for EuropeWork Session on Migration StatisticsChisinau, Republic of Moldova10-12 September 2014

Plan

1. Introduction

2. Main sources of data

3. How to measure migration through the labor force survey

4. How to measure migration through Census

5. Improvement adopted in Census 2014

6. General results

7. Conclusion

Tunisia is a Gate of Africa to Europe….

Nice beaches in Tunisia….

Mysterious Desert in Tunisia….

Mountains in Tunisia….

Olive oil

Oasis of dates

1. Introduction

The migratory context in Tunisia after the revolution has been characterized by : a massive departure of Tunisian youth to Europe a massive exodus of Tunisian and foreign workers from Libya to Tunisia, exile of Libyan families as a result of conflicts in LibyaThe new context has had a political, economic and social impact on Tunisian society

Urgent need for informations to make decision

2. Main sources of data

The main sources of information on international Migration

(Emigration and Immigration) in the Institute is:

Census

Houshold surveys

Administrative Sources

3. How to measure migration through the labor force survey

Insertion of modules to measure migration starting in 2001

Migration measured once a year

Sample size 45000 hh

Periodicity : one year for collecting information about

migration

Representative at national level

Sample 2005 Sample2006

Sub -sample to analyze migration

List of hh 2005

Ind. 1: a

Ind. 2: b

Ind. 3: c

Ind. 4: d

List of hh 2006

Ind. 1: b

Ind. 2: c

Ind. 3: e

Ind. 4: d

Leaving persons

Entering persons

For leaving people

« are there, among the listed persons during year Y-1, one who quit the household and considered as non resident with the household during the Year Y » Yes or No, if yes:

• Order number in the hh during Y-1

• Name and surname

• Date of departure (month, Year)

• Raison for emigration

• Country of destination

• Socio-economic charecteristics are collected in the year Y-1

For Entering people

« Are there among the idividuals listed in this questionnaire, one who was not member of the household during the year Y-1 » if Yes or No, if yes:

• Reason for immigration

• Country of origin

• Current Socio-economic charecteristics

Limits

• Small sample for a rare phenomen

• Can’t get estimates at smaller level

• Unknown situation before entering for immigrants

• Unknown situation after departure for Emigrants

Advantages

• It didn’t recall interviewer s memory, based on the list of individuals

• An important source of data on migration which provide annual

information and estimate on migrants (number of migrants and net

migration at national level)

4. How to measure migration through the Census

History of censuses in Tunisia

06 / 03 / 1921

20 / 04 / 1926

22 / 03 / 1931

12 / 03 / 1936

01 / 11 / 1946

01 / 02 / 1956

03 / 05 / 196608 / 05 / 197530 / 03 / 198420 / 04 / 199428 / 04 / 200423 / 04 / 2014

Tunisian population census represents a snapshot of a population

resident in the country at a given point in time (23, April 2014, round

2010)

Periodicity : 10 years

face to face interview

Mini census to update census database between two census

Emigration module introduced in round 2000 ( census 2004)

Immigration Module in Census 2014

” In April 2009, were you resident in this housing unit?” if

“no”, the following variables are collected:

• Country of origin

• Year of arrival (new variable introduced in 2014 census)

• Reasons for move

Nationality, and Actual socio-economic charecteristics of immigrant are also collected

Census 2014 allows the identification of:

Immigrant stock

The foreign-born population

The foreign population born in Tunisia

The foreign population resident

Return migrants

Emigration Module in Census 2014

“are there any members of your household who reside currently (the reference day of the census) outside Tunisia, and was resident in this household in April 2004?”.

• Relationship with the head of household

• Gender

• Year of migration

• Reason for migration ( same reasons cited for immigration module )

• Country of destination

• Level of education before departure (new variable introduced in 2014 census)

5. Improvement adopted in Census 2014

Improving enumerator training tools by focusing only on practical

and operational issues.

Providing a full explanation to enumerators about the migratory

context and its concepts,

Emphasizing the urgent need of decision makers for such information

in Tunisia

Choosing good position and sequence of items within the census: the

migration modules appears in the 7th position among 14

Formulating easy and clearly worded questions

Meeting with national partners working on migration issues in order

to revise the migration modules, they expressed a need to include

additional variables on both modules, such as :

• Detailed reasons for move (13 reasons instead of 6 in census

2004) , to capture special category of migrants, such as irregular

migrants, those with expired visas, forced migrants, etc.

• Emigration module:“education level before migration

• Immigration: year of arrival,

6. General Results

Period Emigrants Immigrants Net Migration

1999-2004 75773 17766 -58007

2004-2009 41200 17100 - 24100

Net migration from 2004 Population Census and 2009 survey

Period Emigrants Immigrants Net Migration

2011-2012 50931 17351 -33580

2007-2008 26600 10500 -16100

2006-2007 23800 8790 -15010

2005-2006 31200 14860 -16340

2001-2002 29700 11690 - 18010

Net migration from labor force survey

7. Conclusion

Population census is a best source for collecting data on the immigrant stock and its characteristics, it provide an extent of information rarely available from other data sources.

Although it has drawbacks, detecting emigration through census modules was an important source of information to study the migration flows over a period of 5 years

Special survey needs to be undertaken to cover migration aspect that could not be covered by population Census ( emigrant profile, situation after emigration,….)

Med- Hims ( Mediterranean Household International Survey) opportunity to accomplish the migration picture

THANK YOU