Register for mapping circular migration

Linus Johansson, Statistics Sweden
Tomas Johansson, Statistics Sweden

In the budget bill for 2016 the Swedish government have allocated funds to Statistics Sweden to produce yearly statistics on circular migration. The background to this task is that the government in 2014 gave Statistics Sweden and the Swedish Migration Agency the task to undertake a mapping study of available statistical data on migration. One suggestion of the study was to establish a new migration register, which would include all migrants and migratory events with durations of three months or longer. This register would fill a gap in Swedish migration statistics. An alternative solution is a limited register, including only migration involving registration (and de-registration) in the existing population register. Such a database would only include data that is already available. In 2016 will Statistics Sweden begin the process of creating the alternative register that will be used to produce statistics on circular migration. This will probably be the first register in the world focusing on circular migration, and we have several challenges ahead of us. Firstly there is at the moment no generally accepted definition on circular migration. Furthermore, we need to decide what information is of interest to connect to the migrants. Our previous study shows that more than 200 000 migrants have at least three international migrations involving Sweden between the years 1969 and 2014. Until the 1990: s the Nordic circular migration dominated but today Asia has the highest share of circular migrations. This presentation will focus on the work of developing register statistics on circular migration.