Migrations in question – D2IMIG – Dialogue for Diversity, Inclusion, Migration and Improved Learning Opportunitier

DURATION

approx. 45 minutes

FORMAT

Interactive + text-based

The goals of this module

To recognise and identitfy pre-received ideas about migration & demystify the main misconceptions

Develop a critical approach based on understanding different figures and studies on migration

What is it about?

Through this module you can improve your knowledge and understanding of migration numbers, statistics and figures and being able to critically analyse the figures. By understanding the meaning and relations, you are able to identify misconceptions about migration and achieve a more global approach to understanding migration.

On the left you will find a survey based on short questions. After each question you will be able to see what others have voted on (in %). To allow for this collection, please enter a nickname/alias when asked. This can be any nickname or number, and does not have to be your real name.

After each question you can look up the answer and more information on the right. For more information on source, please refer to this page.

To start, answer the first question on the left. Once the results appear, you can click to the right here and see more information regarding the answer.

The questions are not graded or tested in any way and are set up as survey questions. As such you will be able to see what everyone before you has voted for (without personal information or names being shared).

Happy learning!

Are there more and more migrants?

This sentence has little meaning if you don’t have a reference point. Do you count absolute numbers? Or percentages? How are we counting migrants? Does someone stand at the border keeping track?

Counting migrants

While we can find a common definition of migrants (see previous module), there are various ways how we can count migrants. Here we provide some examples:

Population surveys
Visas and residence permits
Registrations (immigration and emigration)
Data collection at borders (e.g. Eurodac)
Big data (e.g. social networks)

There are advantages and disadvantages to all of them, with some being more precise tan others while some also provide information for reasons for and consequences of migration and others just providing numbers.

Increase or decrease?

The earliest year for reliable sources for migration numbers used today as a reference point is 1970. Since then migration has been counted and numbered more frequently. When talking about migration numbers, we tend to focus on absolute numbers – 281 million international migrants in 2020 – and we see that the number has increased since 1970. Yet, when we focus on the evolution of the proportion of migrants compared to the world population (which has also increased), the figures are pretty stable. Migrants represent 3.5% of today’s world population. This means that 96.5% of the population live in the country in which they were born in.

Therefore, the answer to this question depends solely on whether we count absolute numbers, percentages, and how we count migrants specifically.

Are there more women or men who migrate?

The simple answer is: In 2020, we counted 281 million migrants (3.5% of the world population), and 48.1% of them were women.

Historical perspective

For a long time, until the mid 90s, it was especially men who emigrated because it was mainly due to labour needs (due to needs arising from post-war reconstruction, etc.). From the 1990s onwards, the immigrant population become more feminised, initially as a result of family reunification.

The proportion of women migrants has hardly changed over the last decades. However, more women migrate independenlty nowadays to work, study, or as the head of a household.

Public perception

In our minds, we tend to associate migration with men. This is largely due to the portrayal by the media: Very often, the migratory routes that receive the most media coverage are the routes predominantly taken by men.

In European countries, for example, the central Mediterranean route is highly represented in the media, where in recent years most migrants.

This invisibilisation of women in regards to migration is also used, by those opposed to welcoming immigrants, to play on fears and limit empathy. Thus, trying to increase fear of this fantasised image of a horde of men launching an assault on Europe…