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Summaries of EU Legislation

Migration statistics

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Migration statistics

 

SUMMARY OF:

Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 — EU statistics on migration and international protection

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE REGULATION?

It sets out European Union (EU) rules for the collection and compilation of statistics on migration (emigration* and immigration*), international protection (asylum), regular and irregular migration* and returns by EU and EFTA countries.

KEY POINTS

Statistical requirements

The regulation sets out the statistical requirements for different categories of data:

For international migration, EU countries must provide Eurostat with statistics on:

  • immigrants moving to their territories;
  • emigrants moving from their territories;
  • persons usually resident on their territories;
  • persons having acquired national citizenship.

For residence permits and residence of non-EU citizens, EU countries must provide Eurostat with statistics on:

  • residence permits issued, and permits issued due to the change of immigration status or reason to stay;
  • the numbers of valid residence permits and long-term residence permits.

For international protection, EU countries must provide Eurostat with statistics on:

  • persons applying for international protection;
  • unaccompanied children applying for international protection;
  • pending applications for international protection;
  • withdrawn asylum applications;
  • rejected applications for international protection;
  • grants of refugee, subsidiary protection, national humanitarian and temporary protection statuses;
  • requests, decisions and transfers under the Dublin III Regulation;
  • beneficiaries of resettlement*.

For the prevention of irregular entry and stay, and for returns, EU countries must provide statistics on the number of:

  • non-EU citizens who have been refused entry at their external borders;
  • non-EU citizens who have been found illegally present on their territories;
  • administrative or judicial decisions imposing an obligation to leave their territories;
  • the number of non-EU citizens who are returned having been given an order to leave.

Data sources

The statistics are based on a number of sources including:

  • records of administrative and judicial actions;
  • registers of the population or relating to administrative actions;
  • censuses;
  • sample surveys.

In general, the statistics are broken down by age, sex, citizenship or country of birth. However, data are also collected for other categories such as the reason for issuing a residence permit or a country of previous or next residence for migration data.

Implementation

The European Commission submits a report to the European Parliament and the Council on the implementation of the regulation every 3 years. The 2015 report found improvements in the availability of data, completeness, quality and timeliness.

FROM WHEN DOES THIS REGULATION APPLY?

It has applied since 20 August 2007.

BACKGROUND

* KEY TERMS

Emigration: the action by which a person, having previously been resident in an EU country, changes his or her country of residence for a period that is or is expected to be of at least 12 months.

Immigration: the action by which a person establishes his or her residence in the territory of another EU or non-EU country for a period that is or is expected to be of at least 12 months.

Irregular migration: the movement of people across borders that does not conform to the administrative or legal norms of the sending, transit or receiving country.

Resettlement: the transfer of non-EU country citizens to an EU country where they are permitted to reside for the purposes of international protection.

MAIN DOCUMENT

Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 July 2007 on Community statistics on migration and international protection and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 311/76 on the compilation of statistics on foreign workers (OJ L 199, 31.7.2007, pp. 23-29)

RELATED DOCUMENTS

Commission Regulation (EU) No 351/2010 of 23 April 2010 implementing Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council on Community statistics on migration and international protection as regards the definitions of the categories of the groups of country of birth, groups of country of previous usual residence, groups of country of next usual residence and groups of citizenship (OJ L 104, 24.4.2010, pp. 37-39)

Commission Regulation (EU) No 216/2010 of 15 March 2010 implementing Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council on Community statistics on migration and international protection, as regards the definitions of categories of the reasons for the residence permits (OJ L 66, 16.3.2010, pp. 1-2)

Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 on Community statistics on migration and international protection (COM(2015) 374 final of 30.7.2015)

last update 07.11.2016

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