Indicator 10.7.2 Number of countries with migration policies that facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people

Indicator 10.7.2: Proportion of countries with migration policies that facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people

Target 10.7: Facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people, including through the implementation of planned and well-managed migration policies

International Organization for Migration (IOM) and United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) as custodian agencies

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as partner agency

Definitions:

SDG Indicator 10.7.2 aims to describe the state of national migration policies and how such policies change over time. The information collected seeks to identify both progress made and gaps, thus contributing to the evidence base for actionable recommendations for the implementation of SDG target 10.7. The indicator also serves for the future thematic reviews at the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF).

The conceptual framework for indicator 10.7.2 is IOM´s Migration Governance Framework (MiGOF), which was welcomed by 157 countries (IOM Council Resolution C/106/RES/1310). The MiGOF has three principles and three objectives (figure 1).

Figure 1. Principles and objectives of the Migration Governance Framework

The three principles propose the necessary conditions for migration to be well-managed by creating a more effective environment for maximized results for migration to be beneficial to all. These represent the means through which a State can ensure that the systemic requirements for good migration governance are in place.

The three objectives are specific and do not require any further conventions, laws or practices than the ones that are already existing. Taken together, these objectives ensure that migration is governed in an integrated and holistic way, responding to the need to consider mobile categories of people and address their needs for assistance in the event of an emergency, building resilience of individuals and communities, as well as ensuring opportunities for the economic and social health of the State.

In line with the MiGOF, the proposed methodology for SDG indicator 10.7.2 is comprised of six policy domains, with one proxy measure for each domain (table 1).

Table 1. Domains and proxy measures for SDG indicator 10.7.2

For each of the domains and corresponding proxy measures, one question was specified, each one of them informed by five sub-categories or responses (table 2), to capture key aspects of the range of migration policies at the national level, while allowing the indicator to detect relevant variations across countries and over time.

Table 2. Questions and sub-categories for SDG indicator 10.7.2

Concepts:

SDG target 10.7 is broad in scope and many, but not all, of the terms are well defined. The IOM Glossary on Migration^[1] provides a definition of key concepts such as orderly and regular migration, but not others such as safe and responsible migration. According to the Glossary, orderly migration refers to “the movement of a person from his/her usual place of residence, in keeping with the laws and regulations governing exit of the country of origin and travel, transit and entry into the host country”. Regular is defined as “migration that occurs through recognized, legal channels”.

While the concept of “well-managed migration policies” is not explicitly defined, according to the IOM Glossary, it is included in references to migration management, migration governance and facilitated migration. Migration management refers to the planned approach to the development of policy, and legislative and administrative responses to key migration issues. Migration governance is defined as a system of institutions, legal frameworks, mechanisms and practices aimed at regulating migration and protecting migrants. Facilitated migration refers to fostering or encouraging regular migration, for example through streamlined visa application process.

Percent (%) (refers to the proportion of countries with values between specific ranges for regional and global aggregates (see also 4.c. Method of computation)).

The source of data is the UN Inquiry among Governments on Population and Development, which has been used to survey global population policies since 1963, including policies on international migration. The Inquiry is mandated by the General Assembly in its resolution 1838 (XVII) of 18 December 1962. The Inquiry consists mostly of multiple-choice questions.

Two successive rounds of the Inquiry have been used to collect data on indicator 10.7.2: the Twelfth Inquiry, conducted between September 2018 and October 2019, and the Thirteenth Inquiry, conducted between November 2020 and October of 2021. The Twelfth Inquiry is divided into three thematic modules: Module I on population ageing and urbanization; Module II on fertility, family planning and reproductive health; and Module III on international migration. Module III of the Twelfth Inquiry has been updated to include core questions for all the six migration policy domains mentioned above. The Thirteenth Inquiry is divided into two thematic modules: Module I on reproductive health; and Module II on international migration.

Governments of 193 Member States, 2 observer States, and 2 non-member States

Developing a synthetic, robust indicator with the breadth and scope of target 10.7 as formulated in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is challenging. As co-custodians of indicator 10.7.2, UN DESA and IOM recognize that the indicator is neither expected nor designed to be comprehensive (figure 2); hence the importance of other, complementary tools such as IOM’s Migration Governance Indicators (MGI) Project.¹

The indicator includes a total of 30 sub-categories, under 6 questions/domains. All sub-categories, except for those under domain 1, have dichotomous “Yes/No” answers, coded “1” for “Yes” and “0” for “No”. For the sub-categories under domain 1, there are three possible answers: “Yes, regardless of immigration status”, coded “1”; “Yes, only for those with legal immigration status”, coded “0.5”; and “No” coded “0”.

For each domain, the computational methodology is the unweighted average of the values across sub-categories :

$D_i\mathrm{\ }=\mathrm{\ }\frac{{\sum }_j^n{s}_{ji}}{n}\mathrm{\ }\times 100$

Where $D_i$ refers to the value for domain i;${\sum }_j^n{s}_{ji}$ refers to the sum of the values across sub-categories (indexed by j) under domain i; and n refers to the total number of sub-categories in a domain (n=5). Results are reported as percentages. For each domain, values of $D_i$ range from a minimum of 0 to a maximum of 100 per cent.

The overall summary indicator 10.7.2 for a country is obtained by computing the unweighted average of the values of the 30 sub-categories under the six domains, with values ranging between 0 and 100 per cent.

For ease of interpretation and to summarize results, the resulting country-level averages (for the overall indicator and by domain) are then categorized as follows: values of less than 40 are coded as “Requires further progress”; values of 40 to less than 80 are coded as “Partially meets”, values of 80 to less than 100 are coded as “Meets”; and values of 100 are coded as “Fully meets”.

Data on country-level averages for the overall indicator and by domain used to compute indicator 10.7.2 are accessible through the SDG database, at the country level in the series 3230 (SG_CPA_MIGRS).

The unit of measure of the country-level averages for the overall indicator and by domain is categorical/score (1 = Requires further progress; 2 = Partially meets; 3 = Meets; 4 = Fully meets).

2023-03-31

International Organization for Migration (IOM) and United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) as custodian agencies

Indicator 10.7.2 is complementary to several related SDGs indicators. These include, but are not limited to:

Indicator 8.8.1 “Frequency rates of fatal and non-fatal occupational injuries, by sex and migrant status”;

Indicator 8.8.2. “Level of national compliance of labour rights (freedom of association and collective bargaining) based on International Labour Organization (ILO) textual sources and national legislation, by sex and migrant status”;

Indicator 10.7.1. “Recruitment cost borne by employee as a proportion of yearly income earned in country of destination”;

Indicator 10.7.3. “Number of people who died or disappeared in the process of migration towards an international destination”;

Indicator 10.7.4. “Proportion of the population who are refugees, by country of origin”;

Indicator 10.c.1 “Remittance costs as a proportion of the amount remitted”.

Indicator 10.7.2 is also complementary to other national migration monitoring frameworks, including IOM’s MGI, which entered its third phase in 2018. The MGI operates as a policy-benchmarking framework and offers insights into policy levers that countries could use to further develop their migration governance. It contains nearly 90 questions related to countries’ national migration policies, which fall under the same six domains as indicator 10.7.2.

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