1957 - United Nations Statistics Division

national frontier by a traveller likewise is a simple event
to define; but it is not a very significant one in itself. The
commonly used concepts of permanent emigrant and immigrant,
temporary migrant and tourist, are largely conventional
in the sense that they do not relate to obvious
and easily recognizable characteristics of the travellers,
which would make it possible readily to identify and
enumerate those belonging in each category. The legal or
administrative definitions vary greatly among countries
and sometimes in the same country, according to context,
although in most cases account is taken of whether or not
the traveller is a resident of the country from which he
departs or in which he arrives and of the purpose and
expected duration of his sojourn.
In order to make it possible under these circumstances
to collect statistics of international population movements
and migration and to ensure that they possess a reasonable
degree of consistency and international comparability, it
is necessary to establish statistical nomenclatures defining
precisely what is to be counted, adapted to the processes
of data collection and tabulation, and also meeting the
needs of users of statistical information in this field.
The nomenclature used in Table 27 and in the requests
for migration data sent by the International Labour
Office to the various countries is substantially the same
as that given in paragraph 17 of the Recommendations.
Four major categories of departures and arrivals are distinguished
therein; they are mutually exclusive, so that
no person should be counted in more than one of them.
The nomencature is as follows:
Departw'es to other countries (except frontier traffic)
1. Total departures (sum of categories 2, 3, 4 and 5) .
2. Permanent emigrants, i.e., residents (nationals and
aliens) intending to remain abroad for a period exceeding
one year.
3. Temporary immigrants departing (dependents being
classified in category 4) .
4. Visitors departing on completion of visit. This category
may be subdivided according to the purpose of
the visit.
5. Residents (nationals and aliens) intending to remain
abroad for a period of one year or less.
Special classes, i.e., separate figures for groups included
in the above categories, to which a given country
attaches special interest, for example: refugees or
transferred population departing; emigrants enjoying
special facilities such as government financial
assistance, participation of inter-governmental organizations
in cost of passage, facilities under bilateral
or multilateral agreements.
A rrivals from other countries (except frontier traffic)
1. Total arrivals (sum of categories 2, 3, 4 and 5) .
2. Permanent immigrants, i.e., non-residents (nationals
and aliens) intending to remain for a period exceeding
one year.
3. Temporary immigrants, i.e., non-residents intending
to exercise for a period of one year or less an occupation
remunerated from within the country (dependents
being classified in category 4) .
4. Visitors, i.e., non-residents intending to remain for a
period of one year or less without exercising an occu-
44
pation remunerated from within the country (including
their dependents). This category may be
subdivided according to the purpose of the visit.
5. Residents (nationals and aliens) returning after a
stay abroad not exceeding one year.
Special classes, i.e., separate figures for groups included
in the above categories, to which special interest
attaches at a given time, for example: refugees;
transferred population; immigrants enjoying special
facilities such as government financial assistance,
participation of inter-governmental organizations in
cost of passage, facilities under bilateral or multilateral
agreements.
Frontier traffic
It is seen that for statistical purposes, the Recommendations
distinguish permanent migrants from other travellers
by the fact that they change their country of residence
for more than one year. Temporary migrants are distinguished
from other travellers by the fact that they
are moving to take employment abroad for one year or
less; other persons going abroad for other purposes, for
one year or less, are visitors.
The drawing of a line at one year to distinguish between
"temporary" and "permanent" movements is widely
accepted among countries where a systematic effort has
been made to clarify migration statistics. However, in the
marginal case of persons changing residence for exactly
one year (e.g. with one-year employment contract with no
intention to extend it), countries stilI use an older pattern
of classification which includes the travellers concerned
among permanent migrants instead of temporary
migrants or visitors, as the case may be, in the 1953
nomenclature. 60
Deviations from the above definitions are found in footnotes
to Table 27 and, in some instances, to Tables 28
to 31. They result from variations in the concept of permanency
or from limitations of the data to certain groups,
such as aliens or nationals, or to certain types of movements
such as continental or intercontinental migration,
travel by sea or across land borders.
The value of the data and their international comparability
are thus rather severely restricted. In some cases,
the restriction corresponds to a serious deficiency in our
knowledge of the number and characteristics of migrants.
Supplementary information can sometimes be derived
from indirect sources, but this process may be painstaking
and results are often of uncertain validity. In other
cases, the restriction is somewhat formal, as when a group
is excluded because it is too small to warrant the expense
of statistical reporting, or was so considered when procedures
for obtaining migration statistics were established.
It is for each user to evaluate whether the missing
element is or is not negligible for his particular purpose,
whether it may not have become more important in
recent years without collection procedures having been
changed to permit its inclusion, whether the figures for
groups such as nationals departing for overseas destination,
or aliens arriving from overseas in third class
accommodations, may not, under particular circum-
60 In this respect, the 1953 Recommendations differ from the 1949
Draft Recommendations for the Improvement of Migration Statistics
and Resolutions of the 1932 International Conference on Migration
Statistics, but conform to proposals made in 1932 by the International
Labour Office.