15 January 2018

Nadia Touihri

Director of Demographic Statistics

Chief migration unit

National Institute of Statistics

touihri.nadia@ins.tn

Tunisian emigration

through censuses:

Pros and cons

Measuring Emigration through censuses Paris , 15 January 2018

01 Plan

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Limits of measuring emigration through census

4. Advantages of measuring emigration through census

5. Data quality

6. Tabulation and data Dessimination

7. Some results

8. Conclusion

Introduction 01 .

• Spatial mobility is one of the fundamental axes of the societies functioning

and changing.

• It is impossible to understand these societies without taking into

consideration spatial mobility.

• Mobility can not be analyzed separately, because it is linked to the

economic, social, cultural, geographical and demographic elements at the

place of departure and at the place of arrival.

• Thus, population censuses remain the most relevant source of information

on migration, given its completeness and the opportunity it for further cross-

checks with other key variables of migrants.

Introduction 02 .

• Tunisian population census represents a snapshot of the resident population

in the country at a given point in time (exp: 23 April 2014, round 2010)

• Periodicity : 10 years

• face to face interview

• Emigration module introduced in round 2000 ( census 2004)

• Emigration is measured over a period of 5 years

Methodology

03

.

Is (name) resident in the same

housing unit, in April 2009?

Other housing unit

Country / delegatio of

residence April 2009

Urban / rural Reason Year of departure

Same housing unit

Immigration and return migration

Census 2004

Census 2014

04 .

Are there any member of your household riside currently abroad, and was resident in

this household in April 2009?

Oui

Relationship with the head

of hh

Gender

Year of birth

Reason

Current country of residence

Year of departure

Level of education

Non

Emigration

Census 2004

Census 2014

Methodology

05 limits of measuring emigration through census

• Information about emigrant gathered by proxy

• It recall interviewer ‘s memory

• No information about emigrants after migration; situation, profile,

integration

• Only a limited set of question could be inserted into census questionnaire;

it’s not the purpose of a census

• Departure of entire Household (no left behind); possibility of missing some

emigrants

06 Advantages of measuring emigration through census

Measuring emigration through census allows to:

• Get information about the structure of emigrant within a given period

• Get information about the level of education of emigrant before departure

• Get information about the country of destination

A cross check with the other census modules, allows in depth analysis to

understand the emigrant behavior:

• Housing unit characteristics,

• Life conditions of household ,

• Individual characteristics of the head of household

07 Data quality

To improve data quality :

• Improving enumerator training, and instructions

• Providing a full explanation to enumerators about the migratory context

and its concepts,

• Formulating easy and clearly worded questions

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

migration modules appears in the 7th out of 14 theme,

• for household that emigrate with all his members; questions should be

addressed neighbors in order to get at least information about their

number and their gender

08 Tabulation and data dissemination

For census 2014; emigration is measured between 2009 and 2014:

• First results was dessiminated from the 20% of

• A core tabulation with descriptives analysis was provided in a

publication titeled « Carectéristiques migratoires en Tunisie »

• Specific tabulation are addressed to migration unit in INS

09 Some results

Destination country

• The number of emigrants between April 2009 and April 2014 was about 66

thousands; a yearly average of 13 thousand.

41.8

16.1

14

13.1

4.5

2.9

2.7

2.5

2.4

0 10 20 30 40 50

France

Libya

other

Italy

German

Emirates

Saoudia Arabia

Qatar

Canada

% of emigrants by country of destination

10 Some results

-20000 -15000 -10000 -5000 0 5000

moins 15 ans

15-19 ans

20-24 ans

25-29 ans

30-34 ans

35-39 ans

40-44 ans

45-49 ans

50-54 ans

55-59 ans

60 ans et plus

Female

Male

Structure of Emigrants

11 Some results

Reason for Emigration

73.4

14.2

9.7

2.7

% of emigrants by reason of departure

Economic reason

Study

Marriage

Other

12 Some results

Level of education of Emigrants

24.5

40

28.6

7

% of emigrants by level of education before departure

high

secondary

primary

nothing

12 Data comparaison

Share of women from Tunisian total stocks (DIOC) and Tunisian Emigrants (Census)

13 Conclusion

• Although its limits, and with the absence of accurate administrative

data, and the high cost of specific migration survey, Census remain a reliable

source and an opportunity to measure emigration.

• Provide a database for sampling purposes to undertake survey about

migration; limit cost

• Emigration module will be considered in the next round where

the variable “economic situation before departure” will be added

• Specific migration survey is needed to cover some aspects that could not be

covered by population Census ( emigrant profile, situation after

emigration,….)

Thank you