Migration policies and governance
The growing interest in comparative analyses of migration has led to a variety of attempts to assess and compare countries’ migration policies and governance, including immigration, emigration and integration. This effort is now also enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In SDG target 10.7., United Nations (UN) Member States commit to facilitate by 2030 the “orderly, safe, and responsible migration and mobility of people, including through implementation of planned and well-managed migration policies” (UN, 2015).
Data that assess migration policies are commonly based on experts’ evaluations of existing laws and regulations and provide insight into aspects of countries’ governance. However, these data are limited because individual data sources, mostly migration policy indices, do not cover all policy aspects where migration is implicated. Data on migration governance also mostly focus on certain regions or time periods. Although this page focuses on data that assess migration policies, it is important to note that data that inform policy making on migration are also limited.
