The new issue of Migration Policy Practice focuses on ways to improve data on international migration. The inclusion of migration in the new global development framework will pose several new challenges for national statistical systems around the world, which are already struggling to collect and analyse data on migration. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will require making better use of existing data sources, as well as developing new methods to collect data on migration.

An additional problem is that many of the concepts linked to migration have not been well defined for measurement purposes – for example, targets relating to safe, orderly and regular migration. Furthermore, the SDG Agenda calls upon States to ensure that “nobody is left behind”; this will require States to disaggregate data by migratory status to address the vulnerability of migrants.  

In order to facilitate discussion of such issues and to exchange best data practices, the International Organization for Migration organized a conference on improving international migration data in December 2016, at Germany’s Federal Foreign Office in Berlin. The articles in this volume were first presented at this conference, which was sponsored by the European Commission and the Government of the United States.

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