The Known Unknowns and Unknown Unknowns of Migration Statistics

Funda Ustek-Spilda, LSE

Migration is a key topic in today’s politics and policy-making. Questions such as how many people immigrate or emigrate in a given year, what their migration trajectories are, whether migration numbers can be curbed or how ‘quality’ migration can be achieved dominate the discussions on migration, whereby the differences in answers have the power to decide on elections, shift political agendas and public policies. Often in these discussions numbers related to migration are discussed with presumed certainty and objectivity. In this talk, I will re-direct the attention paid to the consequences of migration and management of numbers, to the knowledge practices that make up the migration numbers, and more broadly, migration statistics. I will argue that migration does not exist independently of the concepts, definitions, methods, data analytics or other data practices that are utilised to produce knowledges on migration in order to unpack this assigned certainty and objectivity. By paying attention to the known unknowns and unknown unknowns of migration statistics, I will draw attention to the uncertainties that get erased in the process of producing numbers on migration. My talk will be based on my ongoing work as part of a collaborative, transnational and transdisciplinary research project ARITHMUS: How data make a people.

The events are free and open to the public. Registration is not required.

Organiser: Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies