Bilateral international migration flow estimates by type of move

Estimates of bilateral international migration flows by move type between 1990-1995 and 2015-2020 based on methods presented in Abel & Cohen (2019). In the paper, estimates by move type are not discussed in detail, but are by-products of the three demographic accounting methods, which may be of potential interest. If used, please cite the Abel and Cohen (2019) paper.

Part of a collection of files related to estimates of bilateral international migration flows. See the Figshare collection for other files, including bilateral migration flow estimates from six different methods.

You might also be interested in files for sex-specific bilateral international migration flow estimates, provided in another Figshare collection

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library(readr)

f <- read_csv("https://figshare.com/ndownloader/files/53256140")

Version Details

Estimates of international migration flows by move type. Move types are a disaggregation of the total estimates of bilateral migration flows. The flow estimation methods use the most recent published UN DESA International Migrant Stock (IMS2024) and World Population Prospects (WPP2024) data inputs.

Migration types are categorized into outward migration, return migration, or transit migration, as described in Azose and Raftery (2019). Outward migrants move away from their country of birth. Return migrants move to their country of birth. Transit migrants move from and to countries, neither of which is their country of birth.

Estimates are only available for demographic accounting methods, which utilize the framing of bilateral migrant stock data as marginal sums of birthplace x origin x destination migration flow tables introduced by Abel (2013)

A description of the changes between each version of the estimates (of total flows, not by type) can be found here.

Data Details

Row for each migration corridor - period - move type combination (228 origins x 228 destinations x 4 periods x 3 move types + 230 origins x 230 destinations x 2 periods x 3 move types = 941,208).

Four columns for each of the data dimensions:

year0	First year of five-year period
orig	Origin ISO three letter country code
dest	Destination ISO three letter country
type	Move type (one of outward, return or transit)

See the county list file for country names corresponding to the ISO three letter country codes.

Three columns for flow estimates from each method:

da_min_open	Demographic accounting, minimize migrant transitions (maximize stayers) - open accounting system
da_min_closed	Demographic accounting, minimize migrant transitions (maximize stayers) - closed accounting system
da_pb_closed	Demographic accounting, pseudo-Bayesian average of migrant transitions and stayers - closed accounting system

Refer to the published paper for detailed information on each method and usage notes.