Dear Ray
If you really want to know about the sources of information and
statistics on migration that are available to Eurostat and/or the UN but
that are not always routinely available to ONS then you should have a
look at the work of my colleague Ann Singleton who has been on
secondment to the Eurostat Population Team on Migration and Asylum
Statistics since 1996. Ann has recently been on secondment to the
European commission with responsibility for drafting the statistical
legislation on migration and asylum. Her work (along with the first
ever comprehensive report on European Migration and Asylum) is available
on the Europa web site.
The statistical framework can be found in
Salt, J., Singleton, A. and J. Hogarth (1994), Europe's international
Migrants, London: HMSO, 223 p.
and
Salt, J., and A. Singleton (1995)
Analysis and forecasting of international migration by major groups.
Report prepared on behalf of Eurostat. London: Migration Research Unit,
University College of London.
Ann's paper for the UN Statistical Commission on 'STATISTICAL DATA ON
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IN THE EUROPEAN UNION:'
http://www.unece.org/stats/documents/2003/04/migration/wp.13.e.pdf
might also be helpful for those people with a scientific interest (as
opposed to xenophobic fear) in this subject
Dave Gordon
Ray Thomas wrote:
>>The fact that ONS has denied being manipulated - and that should be
>>accepted - adds fuel to my contention that politicians are probably a
>>lesser evil than journalists and newspapers with a circulation or
>>political axe to grind.
>>
>>
>
>Why this negative view?
>
>The ONS on the whole does a great job. But the ONS keep on boasting about
>the quality of their statistics - even when it is very poor - as with the
>Census that did not seriously attempt to count immigrants, illegals or
>non-resident partners, as with the Labour Force survey that fails to count
>with reasonable accuracy the number of claimant unemployed, as with the
>Family Resources Survey that fails to count with reasonable accuracy the
>number of recipients of a number of government benefits, as with economic
>statistics that are all to do with managing the economy and have little to
>say about our standard of living.
>
>I do not think that the ONS will get trust, or will deserve trust, until it
>starts emphasing the limitations of these statistics rather than their
>quality.
>
>I'm suprised at the naivity of the suggestion made that the UN provide
>authoritative statistics on the British population. Is the suggestion that
>the UN use sources not available to the ONS? If so I'd like to know
>about them!
>
>We need the journalists and the press desperately - to try to ensure that
>the ONS does what it is supposed to do. The main point of the Sunday Times
>piece that originated this discussion was that the Government leaned on the
>ONS on the timing of publication of immigration statistics. The response to
>this charge in the letter to the Statistics commission or in minister
>(McTaggarts (?)'s) response in a TV interview was hardly convincing.
>
>Seven years after the Labour Party's election pledge to create an
>statistical service independent to the government of the day, after Green
>Paper, White Paper and Code of Conduct, the situation seems to be that a
>government only has to drop a hint and the ONS will conform. It does not
>have to be a Labour Government. The present Government has managed to set
>a pattern that other governments will follow in manipulating reality.
>
>Ray Thomas
>**************************88
>
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--
Dave Gordon
Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research
University of Bristol
8 Priory Road
Bristol BS8 1TZ, UK
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
Tel: (44)-(117)-954 6761
Fax: (44)-(117)-954 6756
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