DATA ASSESSMENT REPORT FOR THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA

Transcription

1 Data assessment report REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA DATA ASSESSMENT REPORT FOR THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA Michel POULAIN, Anne HERM, Maria VREMIS and Viorica CRAIEVSCHI TOARTA 1

2 Data assessment report REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA The analyses and findings of this report, the interpretations and conclusions expressed herewith belong to the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the European Commission and the International Organization for Migration. IOM is committed to the principle that humane and orderly migration benefits migrants and society. s an inter-governmental body, IOM acts with its partners in the international community to: assist in meeting the operational challenges of migration; advance understanding of migration issues; encourage social and economic development through migration; and uphold the human dignity and well-being of migrants. The present report is the result of a study performed by International Experts, Michel Poulain and Anne Herm, as well as Local Experts, Maria Vermiş and Viorica Craievschi-Toartă, within the framework of the IOM project Supporting the implementation of the migration and development component of the EU-Moldova Mobility Partnership, funded through European Commission s European Neighborhood and Partnership Instrument. This report is the outcome of a large joint effort of data-gathering and analysis to which many institutions of the Republic of Moldova and individuals have contributed in different but equally important ways. In that regard, we want to express our gratitude and thank all of the Technical Working Group members and observers for their active participation and important provided inputs. We d also like to thank specifically Elena Vătcărău at the National Bureau of Statistics and Ştefan Carauş at the State Resource Information Center Registru State Enterprise for their most helpful support and information and critical comments provided. Martin Wyss, Ghenadie Cretu, Silas Rapold and Oxana Maciuca at the IOM Moldova office provided intellectual guidance, encouragement and support throughout the project. Funding for this study has come through the European Neighborhood and Partnership Instrument. IOM Mission to Moldova 36/1 Ciuflea St. Chisinau, MD-2001 Republic of Moldova Tel ; Fax: ; 2011 International Organization for Migration (IOM) All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher. 2

3 Data assessment report REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA Table of content Introduction Terminology and Abbreviations Section 1. General overview of the data collection in the field of international migration in Moldova Section 2. Current and potential future data providers and main statistical data producers 2.1. The National Bureau of Statistics 2.2. The Integrated Automated Information System SIIAMA 2.3. The State Register of Population 2.4. Other potential future data providers Section 3. The compliance with the international and European standards on international migration statistics 3.1. Statistics on international migration, resident population and acquisition of citizenship (Art. 3 of the EU Regulation) Country of residence and population stock relevant to international migration Flow of international immigrants and emigrants Requested statistics 3.2. Statistics on international protection (Art. 4 of the EU Regulation) 3.3. Statistics on the prevention of illegal entry and stay (Art. 5 of the EU Regulation) 3.4. Statistics on residence permits (Art. 6 of the EU Regulation) 3.5. Statistics on remittances (not included in the data set requested by the EU Regulation) Section 4. Other available statistical data related to international migration 4.1. Stocks of Moldovan citizens living abroad 4.2. Labour migration 4.3. Statistics on repatriates 4.4. Statistics on invitations Section 5. Conlcusions and Recommendations Relevant documents 3

4 Data assessment report REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA Annex 1. Summary of legislation of European Commission on international migration statistics Annex 2. Concepts and definitions: recommended by UN and EU compared to those used in Moldova Annex 3. The EU request of data and their availability in Moldova 4

5 Data assessment report REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA Introduction This Data Assessment Report (DAR) aims at assessing all primary and statistical data produced by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), various Ministries and other institutions of public administration in Moldova in the field of migration. Such assessment concerns: (i) the accuracy, reliability and validity of the data, (ii) the methodology and the coverage of the data collection, (iii) the frequency of the data collection and the timeliness of the dissemination, (iv) the relevance and usefulness for users for policy support (v) the comparability and compatibility with international standards and (vi) the accessibility and transparency of these data. Accordingly the DAR will assess the effectiveness of the current data collection by identifying the lack of data and existing gaps with international/eu standards as far as the development and updating of the Migration Profile is concerned. The present DAR is divided in five sections: The first one is presenting a general overview of the situation on statistical data collected in the field of international migration in Moldova as potential support for the forthcoming Extended Migration Profile The second section presents the main producers of statistical data that are the National Bureau of Statistics and the SE SIRC Registru (based on the State Register of Population or within the SIIAMA system) The third section confronts the currently used methodologies and available statistical data with those requested by Eurostat and recommended by the UN Statistical Division on international migration statistics. The gaps will be identified and the statistical tables to be modified or newly produced will be detailed. The fourth section presents and discusses the relevance of other statistical data, currently available (or potentially available in future) produced by different ministries and institutions. The conclusion of this DAR will identify the gaps considering the three key qualities of statistical data needed to support the Extended Migration Profile and the development of efficient evidence-based policies in the area of international migration in Moldova: statistical data availability, reliability and comparability with international standards. 5

6 Data assessment report REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA Terminology and abbreviations BGS Border Guard Service BMA Bureau of Migration and Asylum CCTP Centre for Combating Trafficking of Persons CNAM National Company for Insurances in Medicine CNAS National Social Insurances House DAR Data Assessment Report EEA European Economic Area ESC European Statisticians Conference EU European Union HBS Household Budget Survey ID Identifier IDNP Identification Number of Person ILO International Labour Organization IOM International Organization for migration LFS Labour Force Survey MFAEI Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration MLSPF Ministry of Labour Social Protection and Family MITC Ministry of Information Technology and Communication MJ Ministry of Justice MoEd Ministry of Education MoEc Ministry of Health MoH Ministry of Health MoIA Ministry of Internal Affairs NBM National Bank of Moldova NBS National Bureau of Statistics NCPD National Commission for Population and Development NEA National Employment Agency NGO Non-Government Organization OMAI - Obligatory Medical Assistance Insurance REVIND State Registry of individual evidence in the public system of social insurances RM Republic of Moldova RSUD State Registry of Legal Entities 6

7 Data assessment report REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA SE SIRC Registru State Enterprise State Information Resources Centre Registru of MITC SIA Automated Information System SIAAOAM Information Automated System of Medical Assistance Obligatory Insurances. SIIAMA Integrated Automated System Migration and Asylum SIIOD Integrated Information System of Law enforcing Authorities SIISG Integrated Information System of the Border Guard SIMI Integrated Medical System SPES Swedish Public Employment Service SRP State Registry of Population UN United Nations UNECE United Nations Economic Commission for Europe UNHCR UN High Commissioner for Refugees UNSD United Nations Statistics Division 7

8 Data assessment report REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA Section 1. General overview of the data collection in the field of international migration in Moldova The political and socio-economic changes that took place in Moldova and in the World in recent decades have caused essential changes in population migration. Migration processes have a considerable influence on social, economic and demographic domains in the country, as well as the stability and state security. International migration is a key problem in Moldova and has an important impact on the development of the country and the improvement of the welfare of its population. Among European countries Moldova is experiencing the highest level of emigration of nationals and, potentially in the near future, (return) immigration could increase thus influencing the increase of transit migration and illegal migration which are considered already important topics to deal with. More precisely the emigration is part of the daily life of many Moldovan citizens and any decision of the government in this field could have a considerable impact on the economy of the country and on the development of the Moldovan society. Currently, at least 10 ministries and institutions deal with various international migration issues. In addition most of the local delegations of international institutions, numerous NGO and several foreign embassies are involved in programs where international migration is a major component. Numerous administrative databases exist where information and data to describe and evaluate the impact of international migration can be found. The present assessment on the availability, reliability and comparability of statistical data in the field of international migration aims at supporting directly the Migration Profile. It demonstrates which data are available from statistical surveys and various administrative databases. The major survey operations like census, labour force and household budget surveys are carried out by the National Bureau of Statistics. At the same time, some more limited surveys have been initiated by other institutions, including IOM in collaboration with the ministries concerned. Beside these statistical surveys, several ministries have developed administrative databases that either are directly linked to the international migration issues or include variables on individuals that are related to the latter s migration experience. The majority of these databases are computerized and some statistical aggregated data are produced, part of these being publicly accessible. To enhance the statistical data production related to international migration based on administrative data sources is one of the objectives of the integrated automated information system SIIAMA that has been developed in order to increase the cooperation between ministries in the field of international migration. Advanced technologies developed by the SE SIRC Registru, MITC, allow linking several individual databases for operational investigations in order to increase the cooperation between involved Ministries. The SE SIRC Registru also collects data, produces and updates 24 statistical tables designed to summarize the data produced by each ministry involved in SIIAMA. These SIIAMA tables should allow a direct benchmarking of the different aspects of the migration policy in Moldova. In addition a more policy-oriented consultative committee near the Prime minister of Moldova has been instituted, the National Commission for Population and Development (NCPD), whose mandate includes identifying mechanisms of collection and exchange of disaggregated data on the main demographic indicators, including in the field of migration. The basic NCPD tasks are to 8

9 Data assessment report REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA coordinate the process of elaboration of population policies including the ones having direct relation with international migration. Information, data, statistics and indicators For a better understanding of this DAR, the following hierarchy of concepts has to be considered: 1. Individual information collected by public administration at individual level through administrative forms or paper reports. 2. Individual primary data referring to a group of structured individual information collected according well-defined metadata detailing all variables included, their possible values, their coverage and their reliability. Such individual data are generally organized in ad hoc databases. 3. Aggregated statistical data are obtained by grouping and cross-tabulating individual raw data extracted from the database. These are absolute figures or frequencies that are usually presented in statistical tables. 4. Indicators represent direct support for policy development in the field under concern; these indicators are usually single numerical values that could be absolute figures, relative figures like proportion, standardized indexes built for comparative purpose or qualitative indicators that will appear as a dichotomous (yes or no) or categorical variable (e.g. low, moderate, high). The present DAR will deal with data but more specifically with aggregated statistical data to support on a continuous way the development and updating of the Migration Profile of the Republic of Moldova. Data sources and providers Several ministries and institutions of Moldova are possessing information that is related to international migration or is relevant to migration policies: 1. National Bureau of Statistics central statistical authority that manages and organizes the statistical activity in Moldova. 2. Ministry of Information Technology and Communications, SE SIRC Registru - is responsible for providing statistical data that are part of the SIIAMA. SE SIRC Registru is also the owner State Register of Population. 3. Border Guard Service - provider of information on state border crossing (entry/exit RM) 4. Ministry of Labour, Social Protection and Family - Prevention of Violence and Insurance of Gender Equality Policy Department, Protection of Family and Children s Rights Department, Migration Policy Section, National Coordination Unit of the National Referral System for Assistance and Protection of Victims and Potential Victims of Trafficking (NRS), National Employment Agency 5. Ministry of Internal Affairs - Bureau for Migration and Asylum in charge of the SIIAMA and the Centre for Combating Trafficking of Persons 6. Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration 7. Ministry of Education 8. Ministry of Health 9

10 Data assessment report REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA 9. National Company for Health Insurance 10. National Social Insurance House 11. National Bank of Moldova - Balance of Payments Department However, only few of these institutions are producing statistical data on the basis of information collected. Aiming to support the Migration Profile of Moldova by identifying relevant and reliable statistical data and indicators the focus of this data assessment report is on the two main data producers that are NBS and the SE SIRC Registru (within SIIAMA and also on the base of SRP). In addition other institutions are managing ad hoc databases but are not producing any statistical data except for their own internal use Migration flows and population stocks For a more qualitative interpretation of the different available data and to support the Migration Profile, it is important to establish a clear distinction between flows and stocks related to international migration. Statistical data related to international migration may be classified in two main categories, flows of migrants and stock of persons related to international migration. The migration flow consists of immigration and emigration flows and includes events usually counted on annual base or sometimes monthly base. According to international recommendations immigration means arrival of foreigners having the intention to reside at least 12 months in Moldova. The same immigration flow also includes emigrated Moldovan citizens returning to their home country with the intention to stay in Moldova at least 12 months. As for emigration flows these are mostly constituted by Moldovan citizens leaving for abroad with the intention to reside abroad at least 12 months. However immigrated foreigners leaving the country for at least 12 months or those whose residence permit has expired and was not renewed should also be included in the emigration flow. The population stock related to international migration is composed of all persons who immigrated at least once and are living in the country at a given time, by rule on 1 st January of each year. In the case of Moldova the emigrant stock is also of interest: it is composed of all persons who ever emigrated from Moldova and are residing abroad at the time of observation. Such population stock is not easy to be identified as these persons are living abroad. Only indirect estimation is possible. This topic is usually ignored in international statistical recommendations. 10

11 Data assessment report REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA Section 2. Current and potential future data providers and main statistical data producers The national statistical institutions are traditionally the most important statistical data providers in all European countries and so it is in Moldova. The NBS produces and disseminates official statistics on the field of population, including the international migration. The NBS develops its own independent data collection systems but also uses some data collected for the administrative purposes by other institutions. In addition to the NBS, the state-owned enterprise SE SIRC Registru under the umbrella of the SRP and SIIAMA is producing and disseminating some statistical data related to the international migration. These data are collected for different administrative needs and are managed by the authorities responsible on the relevant administrative tasks mentioned in the previous section. SE SIRC Registru is also the owner and manager of SRP. SRP is intended to collect, store, and update and analyze data on natural persons, subjects of registration, information that is submitted to Moldovan public authorities and to other natural persons as provided by the law. Other potential future data providers will be presented at the end of this section The National Bureau of Statistics Data on demographic processes, including migration, are produced and / or consolidated, aggregated and disseminated by the NBS based on the Law on Official Statistics No. 412-XV from The Law on Official Statistics establishes the main tasks of the NBS that are similar to the ones in EU countries. The Law states the obligation to follow the international standards and promotes the collaboration with international organizations in the field of statistics. The principles of impartiality, statistical deontology, relevance, transparency, confidentiality, cost-efficiency, national level coordination and international collaboration, shall ensure that the statistical data produced and disseminated by the NBS will be relevant, reliable and in agreement with international recommendations. The statistical system of the Republic of Moldova developed by the NBS provides population data resulting directly from their own statistical surveys (Population and Housing Censuses, Labour Force Survey, Household Budget Survey and other specific surveys) or is produced from administrative data sources managed by the following ministries: Ministry of Information Technology and Communications (SE SIRC Registru ); Ministry of Internal Affairs (BMA responsible for SIIAMA). Ministry of Justice (Civil Registry Service); Ministry of Health (National Center of Management in Health); The statistical data collection that could provide information on international migrations are (i) the population census (ii) the Labour Force Survey (iii) the Household Budget Survey (iv) the annual population statistics including international migration statistics. The results of these data collection and data processing activities are disseminated through publications, which are predominantly available on the website of the NBS. 11

12 Data assessment report REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA Population census 2004 Censuses are carried out every ten years. The last census was held in Despite of such low frequency, the census is among the most important statistical data sources in the field of population. While having limited possibility to collect data on international migration flows, census is still an important source for the population data relevant to international migration as it can identify among the total population specific subgroups. In Moldova the census is currently the only source for data on the composition of the resident population by general demographic characteristics as well as specific characteristics relevant to international migration like citizenship and country of birth. Also, census is the starting point for annual updates of the population figure and has direct influence on the annual statistical production not only in the field of demography but also in labour force and other fields. Consequently the census data should be considered as important for the Migration Profile despite the fact that these data cannot be updated annually. The 2004 census enumerated separately the population permanently living in Moldova and the persons temporarily present but having their permanent residence in another country. The persons who lived since several years abroad but were still considered as household members and were keeping their permanent residence in Moldova were included in the permanent population figure. At the opposite persons, mostly foreigners, who had permanent place of residence abroad and lived in Moldova temporarily even more than one year were excluded. Census documents included a special questionnaire on persons who are permanent residents in another country but were temporarily in the territory at the time of census (formularul No. 3S). Such persons had to inform on their basic demographic data (date of birth and sex) as well as country of birth, citizenship, country of permanent residence, reason for stay in Moldova, including work, asylum, studies and other. As the consequence, the 2004 census data concern the permanent population which means the population with permanent residence in Moldova living or not de facto in Moldova at the time of census. The present population (including temporary present but permanently living in another country and excluding permanent residents of Moldova who were temporarily abroad at the time of census) is also identified and some statistical tables were produced on that population. A large number of statistical tables with census data are disseminated through paper publications or are accessible on the NBS website while additional cross-tabulation could be obtained on request for the purpose of the Migration Profile. Labour force survey The Labour Force Survey (LFS) provides data for international migration statistics as among additional areas of investigation some data are collected on the labour force migration. The sample size for a quarterly wave is of 12,000 dwellings. The country of citizenship and the presence or absence of person in household including reasons of absence is among the characteristics collected for each person. The country of birth is not asked. Among the persons not present at the time of interview, persons absent temporarily having left abroad for less than one year 12

13 Data assessment report REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA and person left abroad for one year or more can be distinguished including the purpose of their stay abroad (for studies, work, looking for a job, or for other reasons). LFS results and analyses are published in the statistical yearbook and in a dedicated annual publication. Data are also available on the website of the NBS. Upon request, data are processed to answer more specific needs. In addition to the regular questions asked in the LFS on household members abroad, an ad-hoc Labour Force Migration Survey (LFMS) was carried out in 2008 with particular focus on international migration. The purpose of the survey was to obtain additional characteristics concerning the persons who left abroad for work or in search of work, such as: the reason of leaving, ways to emigrate for labour, emigration costs, ways to look for a job and work conditions, status of residence in the destination country, etc. The sample of the survey was formed of the basic LFS sample for the 2nd quarter of 2008 and an additional sample of LFS households that in 2007 had at least one member who was abroad for work or looking for a job. Two questionnaires were used for data collection: the first for absent migrants that were defined as persons who were absent in the household at the moment of the interview, and the reason of absence was leaving abroad for work or looking for a job, and the second one for returned migrants, that is persons who at the moment of the interview were in the household and who stated that during the last 12 months prior to the interview had been abroad for work or looking for a job. 1 The information on absent migrants was provided by present members of the household during the interview. Based on the basic sample of 2009, the NBS estimated that 295 thousands persons (average of the four quarterly survey waves) were working or looking for a job abroad. Household Budget Survey The NBS is also responsible for the Household Budget Survey (HBS). There is a common sampling framework of the LFS and HBS, a single network of interviewers and controllers. The net sample for Household Budget Survey consists of 9768 households annually. The Household Budget Survey (HBS) provides information on living standards in Moldova through the collection of households income and consumption data, as well as some non-monetary characteristics of households and household members including data relevant to international migration statistics. Two types of data of this survey can be of interest to the Migration Profile. Firstly, the HBS collects data on remittances as a part of household income. All general tables produced by the NBS publish data on household income including the remittances under the other sources of income. Secondly, the HBS questionnaire also allows to collect data on household members who are absent and living abroad, including the reason, duration of absence and country of current stay. The latter data are not currently published. According to information provided by the NBS the estimated number of these persons were 226 thousand in Similar information is also in the regular LFS, as answer to question 76a. What is the main reason which prevents you from starting to work in the next 15 days? Although the answer Is going to leave abroad for work (or recently has came from abroad) does not distinguish between in and outbound migrants, it gives an idea on overall labour mobility on a more frequent basis. 13

14 Annual Statistics on International migration The NBS produces statistical data on international migration on the basis of aggregated data received from the State Register of Population and from the BMA. These aggregated tables contain information on both immigrants and emigrants with the indication of their basic demographic characteristics (age, sex, marital status, level of education, country of previous residence or destination, purpose of arrival, country of citizenship or more simply distinction between nationals and foreigners). These annual statistics are available in the Statistical Yearbook and on the NBS website. Currently the distribution of the population stock by characteristics referring to international migration (country of birth and country of citizenship) is not available as a part of annual population statistics. Assessment In conformity with the Law on Official Statistics the NBS is the central body for producing national statistics, including those on international migration, that are relevant, reliable and in agreement with international statistical recommendations. As in all European countries the statistical institution is deemed to be neutral from any political influence on contents and methodologies used for producing statistics that is the precondition for following the requirements of the above mentioned Law. Accordingly the NBS is the internationally recognized body for producing and disseminating statistics in Moldova. Ministries and other public institutions producing and disseminating statistical data are not obliged to follow strictly these rules, more specifically as far as international statistical recommendations are concerned. Currently there are several other institutions in Moldova that process and distribute statistics on international migration to policy makers directly, without statistical quality check performed by the NBS. The main objective of these statistical data is the monitoring of the functioning of administrative departments for which the extraction and aggregation of raw data directly from their own administrative database (number of processed documents, number of solved problems, etc.) may be fully appropriate. Nevertheless using such data for producing statistical data on population and more specifically migration without implementing traditional statistical rules and methods could be misleading. In this light, the role of the NBS as the final producer and disseminator of the statistical data is not currently fully validated. Any data disseminated in parallel to those produced and disseminated by the NBS should be considered with extreme caution as far as the statistical quality is concerned. Recent documents elaborated by NBS 2 and by Statistics Norway 3 following their support visit in December 2009 present a clear assessment of the production of population and migration statistics by NBS. These assessments, comforted by contacts with NBS specialists within the framework of the current project, have proved the existence of capacity and motivation among NBS staff to develop migration statistics that are reliable, internationally comparable, reflecting accurately the migration processes in the country and relevant for policy needs. 2 NBS (2009). Regarding the development of the System for Demographic Statistics, Nota Informativa accessible on the NBS website. 3 Statistics Norway (2010). Similarities and differences between Moldova and Norway regarding the conditions for demographic statistics a discussion paper. Notat 10 February 2010; Support to develop demographic statistics, Notat 23 February

15 The NBS has high competence to carry out statistical surveys based on ad hoc statistical data collection but NBS has less experience in using data derived from administrative databases for statistical purposes. It is well known among statisticians that using administrative data for producing reliable and relevant statistical data requires implementing specific methods that are different from those for censuses and sample surveys. Like in all fields of population statistics where the raw data are the result of the administrative registration, the best results for the international migration statistics in terms of reliability could be obtained by allowing the national statistical institution to use directly individual data in the statistical data processing. This is not yet the case in Moldova. The NBS is aware of their limitations in terms of capacity. Nevertheless NBS has planned a number of activities including the development of its own information system and the specific training for data analysis. Moreover as NBS will be the most important final data producer for the Migration Profile the NBS staff is willing to support this project as a priority. Specific assessment for the main statistical data sources managed by NBS Census Census as an important data source in the field of population statistics is equally relevant for the international migration statistics and hence, for the Migration Profile. The basic information on population composition by migration related variables are available through census. The particular value of the 2004 census in Moldova in relation to international migration statistics stands on the fact that it collected data on Moldovans living abroad that cannot be done effectively by other data collection methods. However the definitions and the coverage of population groups have to be considered with attention. The household questionnaire of the Census 2004 included information on temporarily absent household members. There was no maximum time limit for temporary absence of persons, and thus persons who lived abroad more than 12 months (the minimum length for inclusion in usual resident population of a country by UN recommendations) could be still considered as temporarily absent in Moldova and counted among household members. Accordingly, the permanent population enumerated by census included a number of persons living abroad already long time. It did not include, however, persons who live abroad, even for short time, but who did not have any household members left in Moldova. Regarding the general definition of population applied in census the enumerated population did not meet the international standards for counting total population of the country as will be shown in Section 3. Due to political reasons population of the left side of the Nistru River and in Bender municipality were not enumerated that results in the partial coverage of the population and in an unknown number of population for the country as whole. Labour Force Survey The Labour Force Survey data can provide an estimate of the number of emigrants abroad and their characteristics. However, there is an unknown level of under coverage because only those persons who have some household members in Moldova can be covered by the survey. Also, even if the duration of absence is included, it cannot be used effectively for estimating the annual emigration 15

16 flow: the number of persons abroad for more than one year will include all persons ever emigrated still living abroad while persons living abroad for less than one year will include also short-term migrants who will return within 12 months. A strong recommendation consists in executing every year a special module on international migration within the LFS as it was done in Also household sample surveys like the LFS cannot satisfactorily cover foreign immigrants. The sample design is based on addresses of dwellings so that foreign immigrants are included. However due to their small number the results of these surveys are not statistically significant for the foreign population. Household Budget Survey The HBS brings limited information on international migration. Information on remittances is collected but only as a part of total income for all households. There is no estimation either on the total absolute numbers of households who receive remittances or on the socio-economic composition of these households. Therefore, it is impossible to estimate the amplitude and the impact of the phenomenon for the Moldovan society as it will be difficult to assess the effect of these remittances on the wellbeing of households receiving remittances compared to others. Data on household members who are absent and declared by other household member as living abroad are not published by NBS. Preliminary investigations show that estimations on total number of absent household members identified by the HBS are different from those based on data collected by LFS. According to HBS the number of such persons is about one third smaller. In order to profit at maximum from both survey results it is needed to clarify the background and reasons of these discrepancies. Different data sources (LFS, HBS, SE SIRC Registru and SIIAMA based on Border Guard database) propose estimates of the number of Moldovan citizens living abroad that differ considerably. Annual statistics on international migration By the end of 2010 the definitions used for annual migration statistics were those stated in the Law on Migration which was replaced by the Law on the regime of foreigners. 4 The new Law does not include anymore general definitions on migration. Also, starting 2011 the national regulatory framework, as well as the statistical framework have to be adjusted to these newly adopted norms. Thus, the definitions previously meeting the most urgent needs of data for relevant policies have been lost. The general concept on migration has to be adjusted in accordance with the international recommendations on international migration statistics as will be seen in Section 3 hereunder. Currently, some administrative data are used by the NBS for statistics on international migration flows. These data are aggregated and provided according to predefined rules by the administrative data holder, accordingly the NBS faces difficulties to manage the data quality. Without validation of the raw data the NBS cannot ensure the reliability of the statistics produced. Receiving only predefined aggregated data the NBS also cannot provide any extra desegregation. Also, the coverage of the migration phenomenon in these data is limited and not compliant with international 4 Law no. 200 of in force starting December

17 recommendations as will be demonstrated in section 3. For the improvement of demographic statistics including statistics on international migration in Moldova more intensive use of the primary data extracted from the State Register of Population and other administrative databases is needed. These administrative data sources are among the most appropriate to meet the international requirements for international migration statistics and to support policy development. Therefore, in order to fulfill successfully its obligations the NBS should intensify cooperation with other public authorities which collect administrative personal and economic data. In Moldova, the relative importance of the labour emigration requests an additional attention to the field of emigration statistics, a topic that is generally weaker in all countries and where good examples of efficient data collection are rare. Improving the data sources for annual emigration flow based on border crossing data in combination with data extracted from the SRP compared with figures from LFS on emigrant stock, would be profitable The NBS understands the importance of data exchange at the international level that is the most efficient modality to assess the quality of the national statistics on international emigration. Such collaboration may help estimating the volume of unregistered emigration and the characteristics of emigrants. In the light of the importance of the international migration in Moldova and considering the current situation in the production of annual statistical data on international migration including the needs for the potential future processing of primary administrative data, the limited human and technical resources can be for the NBS among the main obstacle for concrete improvement. Involvement of other institutions human and technical resources would be much saluted at this point The Integrated Automated Information System SIIAMA SIIAMA, Integrated automated information system "Migration and Asylum, is a conceptual information system adopted in order to integrate different databases or automated information systems to achieve the state policy on migration and asylum. SIIAMA is owned by the Bureau of Migration and Asylum of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. SIIAMA is planned to include the following sources of information: Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, Ministry of Labour, Social Protection and Family trough National Employment Agency, Ministry of Finances trough Custom Service, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Information Technology and Communications, Ministry of Justice trough subordinated institutions, National Bureau of statistics, Border Guards Service, National Social Insurance House, National Company in Health Insurance. The information resources under SIIAMA would supply data in different areas related to migration including those on foreign citizens, stateless persons and refugees. More precisely the goals for setting up the SIIAMA are the following: to integrate the information resources about migration and asylum of different public authorities and administrations; 17

18 to ensure the monitoring of the migration flows, as well as the control the foreigners and stateless persons stay regime on the territory of the country; to ensure the public administration authorities, empowered with taking decisions in migration and asylum area, with operative information. The following databases are planned to be integrated in SIIAMA: 1. A subsystem Migration and Asylum managed by Bureau of Migration and Asylum under the Ministry of Internal Affairs and including 5 databases: Immigration Asylum Repatriation (see Section 4.3) Invitations Contraventions 2. State Register of Population (Ministry of Information, Technologies and Communication) (data on internal migration, information of the citizenship, person s identification, providing documentation services with identity documents, perfecting documents for leaving abroad, processing, updating and keeping data based on the information collected form various ministeries and public institutions ) 3. State Register of Legal Units (RSUD) (MITC in cooperation with Ministry of Justice). 4. Integrated information system of law enforcement (SIIOD) (Ministry of Justice). 5. Civil Registry Services (MITC and MJ) 6. Integrated medical information system (SIMI and its subsystems) (Ministry of Health) 7. Educational information system (Ministry of Education) 8. Information System of Labour Market (National Employment Agency of the Ministry of Labour, Social Protection and Family) 9. Integrated Information System of Border Guard Service (SIISG) 10. Integrated information system of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration (MFAEI Consular Registry) 11. Integrated customs information system ASYCUDA (Custom Service of the Ministry of Finance) In the framework of SIIAMA, MITC, more precisely, SE SIRC Registru is in charge of producing systematic statistical reports based on all information included in the databases integrated in SIIAMA. Currently a set of 24 statistical tables (Table 1) are available but only seven from eleven ministries and administrative authorities listed above make their data available, two by direct linkage of their databases (SRP and SIISG) and the five others by transfer of ready aggregated data. The templates of these statistical tables have been elaborated in common agreement with the NBS and each Ministry involved.. 18

19 Table 1: List of statistical tables available in SIIAMA with indication of the data supplier and the periodicity of data provision No Statistical tables Supplier Periodicity F1.1 Statistical data regarding the number of requests for invitations issued to foreigners to enter the Republic of Moldova, by citizenship and goal of trip F1.2 Statistical data regarding the foreigners who obtained invitations to enter the Republic of Moldova by citizenship, sex, and age groups F1.3 Statistical data regarding the number of requests for invitation issued, withdrawn, rejected to foreigners and stateless persons, by citizenship F2.1 Statistical data regarding the number of people repatriated to the Republic of Moldova, distributed in administrative-territorial profile (yearly, last year by months) F2.2 Statistical data regarding the repatriated persons, by country of arrival F2.3 Data regarding the repatriated persons who arrived in the Republic of Moldova F3.1 Citizens of the Republic of Moldova who left abroad, by sex, age group, and place of residence (ATU) F3.2 Citizens of the Republic of Moldova left abroad, by sex, age groups and duration of absence F4.1 Foreigners who stay in the Republic of Moldova, by sex, age group, and country of citizenship F4.2 Foreigners who stay in the Republic of Moldova, by sex, age groups, and duration of absence F4.3 Statistical data regarding the number of expulsion decisions issued by the courts regarding foreigners and stateless persons F4.4 Statistical data regarding the number of decision to reduce the period of stay, issued by the police bodies in regards to foreigners and stateless persons F4.5 Statistical data regarding the number of violations of the stay rules committed by foreigners and stateless persons on the territory of the RM F5 F6 F7 F8 F9 F10 Employment of RM citizens to work abroad based on individual work contracts which were officially registered with the National Employment Agency Statistical data regarding emigration of RM citizens (with withdrawn residence) for getting settled with permanent residence on the territory of other states, distributed by sex, age groups and country of destination Statistical data regarding the foreigners and stateless persons with temporary residence in the RM, distributed by goal of stay and citizenship Statistical data regarding the foreigners and stateless persons staying on the territory of RM, distributed by type of issued documents and citizenship Statistical data regarding the foreigners and stateless persons residing on the territory of RM, distributed in administrative-territorial profile Statistical data regarding the issuance of the travel document by the diplomatic and consular missions of RM, by country, total number of persons including the minors. F11.1 Statistical data regarding the issuance of visas for foreigners by the diplomatic and consular missions of the Republic of Moldova F11.2 Statistical data regarding the issuance of visas by the diplomatic and consular missions of the Republic of Moldova, by type of visa F12 F13 F14 Statistical data regarding the RM citizens, detained, arrested or condemned to deprivation of freedom on the territory of the country of accreditation, by country, total number of detained persons, year, date, and place of detention Statistical data regarding the RM citizens deceased outside the state of origin, by country, total number of deceased persons, year of death Statistical data regarding the consular record keeping of RM citizens settled with permanent residence in other states through the MFAEI, by country of destination, total number of persons, year of settlement BMA under MIA MITC BMA under MIA MITC, BGS BGS BMA under MIA NEA under MLSPF MITC MFAEI MFAEI MFAEI Monthly Monthly Monthly Daily Monthly Monthly Monthly Monthly Monthly Quarterly Monthly Quarterly 19

20 The Information-Retrieval Access System to State Information Resources named ACCES developed by the SE SIRC Registru is designed for providing users with information from the databases integrated in the SIIAMA. This system provides to users the possibility to access on-line individual information on persons as well as the 24 statistical tables presented above. The ACCES tool allows choosing a given table and the original administrative data will be aggregated for a chosen fixed date or during a selected fixed period. Assessment The SIIAMA integrated information system is potentially a useful tool in term of efficiency for extracting individual information from all administrative individual databases that could be linked in the system. Nevertheless this system is still far from being fully operational The production of statistical tables, the so-called SIIAMA reports, is also an excellent initiative in order to support policy development and would be a rich potential source for indicators of the Migration Profile as well. The set of 24 statistical tables includes a large variety of information on the topics linked to international migration. Currently only tables based on the SRP and SIISG, more precisely tables 2.1., 3.1., 3.2., 4.1., 4.2., 6, 7, 8 and 9 are automatically extracted from the respective databases. The remaining tables are updated based on aggregated data transferred by mail. The statistical tables that are systematically extracted are not fully in agreement with the usual statistical best practices. In all administrative databases individual information is continuously updated. Moreover some events are recorded with delay (e.g. deaths) while others are subject to correction. Accordingly even if the system allows extracting data for a fixed time period or at a given date, the resulting table obtained will differ slightly depending on the time of the request. Every time a user requests data to be extracted from the system, even if this report corresponds to the same period or same time, differences will appear that may bring trouble for analysis and policy support. Concretely, the solution adopted in other countries is to extract at an appropriate fixed time a complete copy of the content of the database and to freeze it. A strict consistency of the tables produced could be ensured by using this frozen data and accordingly all statistical tables will be produced on the same basis for answering all data requests on a consistent way. This point is also crucial in order to produce comparable time series. Considering the different types of statistical data currently available among the 24 SIIAMA tables, stock data and flow data are found but it is not always clear which table displays stock figures at a given date or flow data for a given period of time. The situation is even more complex when considering Tables 3.1, 3.2, 4.1 and 4.2 based on border crossing data where the proposed figures are stock figures obtained by cumulated flow of entries or exits. As such most of the data in the 24 tables include cumulative figures of records included in the database. Up to now there is no precedent of providing data that are the result of linking different databases in the SIIAMA. Such a powerful system like SIIAMA should be used as effectively as possible and among other ways to do this is to link data from different databases. Currently all databases are independent. Some links between different databases are established only when processing 20

21 individual records but no statistical table is produced by taking advantage of information obtained from different databases as a result of linkage. The databases under SIIAMA are clearly oriented to administrative purposes and the 24 tables are mostly used for summarizing the work done by the responsible administrations and are not fully informative for monitoring the migration processes. The need for statistical data related to international migration is not fulfilled de facto even if this is mentioned as one of the tasks of the SIIAMA system. Also the usual rules and practices of statistical data processing and particularly those ensuring the accuracy and reliability of data that are expected to reflect the migration processes cannot be directly applied to the production of the SIIAMA tables. Several figures published in SIIAMA tables are not comparable with similar statistical data published by the NBS. For example the number of Moldovans living abroad are estimated up to 300,000 by NBS through different statistical data sources (census, LFS, HBS) while the SIIAMA reports show nearly 800,000 Moldovan citizens abroad in Table 3.1 based on border crossing data (cumulative number of Moldovan citizens who crossed the border and left the country and did not return) or 89,000 following Table 6 based on the State Register of Population (cumulative number of Moldovan citizens who withdrew their permanent residence in Moldova). Without appropriate metadata the difference between these figures is not understandable. One of the most urgent problems of the 24 SIIAMA tables is that these are accessible only for a limited group of users. De facto the NBS has access to SIIAMA tables but does not produce statistics on that base for quality reasons. Concretely, we propose that the NBS, having a neutral position concerning the contents and functioning of the system and a vital interest for the high quality of these data, will be actively involved in the assessment of the quality of SIIAMA data. Other specialists in the area of migration including academic researchers should be involved in these assessment activities. Without such assessment there are risks that data used for policy purposes will not be reliable The State Register of Population The Automated Information System State Register of Population (SRP) represents a unified integrated system for automated evidence of citizens of the Republic of Moldova, foreign citizens and stateless persons, who are permanently residing or temporarily staying on the territory of the Republic of Moldova, as well as citizens from the Republic of Moldova, who left abroad for permanent or temporary residence (for a period over three months). SE SIRC Registru is the owner and manager of SRP. The SRP is designed for collection, storage, update and analysis of data concerning the natural persons, who are recorded by providing information to state governance bodies and to other authorized legal entities and natural persons. The information collected in the SRP is the following: 21

22 documents issued to Moldovan citizens, foreigners, refugees, beneficiaries of humanitarian protection and stateless persons temporarily or permanently living in Moldova (Ministry of Information Technology and Communications); births and deaths ( Ministry of Health); registration of civil status acts (birth, death, marriage, divorce, change of name and / or surname), amendment (following the adoption, the establishment / contesting paternity), reconstruction, registration and cancellation of civil status (Ministry of Justice); border crossings by individuals (Border Guards Service); consular records on Moldovan citizens temporarily or permanently residents abroad, records on issue visas for entry of foreigners in the Republic of Moldova, Moldovans documentation (records on diplomatic passports and other services to Moldovan citizens) (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration) ; registration and deregistration of the military records of individuals (Ministry of Defense); registration of a new address of residence in the Republic of Moldova; withdrawal of the registered address of residence (viza de resedinta) in the Republic of Moldova enrolment in educational institutions and records on those who have graduated or been expelled from these institutions (Ministry of Education); change of the social status of the person (from work to retired) (Ministry of Labour, Social Protection and Family); modification of the legal status of the person (acquisition, lost of the citizenship of the Republic of Moldova, stateless person) issue of documents to foreigners, stateless persons, refugees, beneficiaries of humanitarian protection and asylum seekers, confirming the right of thereof to reside temporarily or permanently in the Republic of Moldova (Ministry of Internal Affair); change in personal data based on a justified request of individuals. The identifier of the object natural person is the State Identification Number of Person (IDNP). IDNP is assigned to each natural person while primarily entering data concerning him/her into the SRP and it remains unchanged throughout the period of data existence. It is also being entered into all the documents, belonging to this physical person. A special feature of the IDNP consists in the fact that it does not include data concerning the physical person (date of birth and other information). Coverage of the target population The State Register of Population is created on the basis of personal documents and contains the following groups of persons: the persons who have permanent or temporary registration (place of residence in country), confirmed through a stamp in the person s identity document; the newborns, according to the data of the Civil Registry (starting with June 1, 2002, the newborns are attributed identification number and they are automatically included in the SRP) 22

23 the children introduced in the SRP at the same time as their parents are documented, the persons introduced in the SRP when passports are issued, the persons living in Transnistria holding any document delivered by the SE SIRC Registru on the base of the registration in the SRP. the persons who have been registered in the SRP for whom there is no information about their current residence status. A large number of individual information is collected for every person registered in the SRP. Among these the following are of particular interest for the topic of international migration: basic data (age, sex, place of birth, citizenship and information on acquisitions or losses of the Moldovan citizenship, ethnicity), data about immigrants and immigration and changes of the place of residence, the purpose of migration to / from Moldova, reason of arrival in the Republic, Three statistical tables are available on the SPR website and one of these displays the distribution of the population by country of citizenship. Assessment The State Register of Population is a key database for providing statistical data related to international migration on both migration flow and population stock with immigration background. Nevertheless two important limitations can be observed. First the content of the SRP is fully dependent on the administrative rules and their strict application of the criteria for the registration and deregistration of the population. Secondly the completeness of the coverage is not ensured and that has a direct impact on the reliability of the statistical data produced on the basis of the SPR. The main problem with the administrative rules and their application is the low level of deregistration for Moldovan citizens leaving the country. As a consequence the persons leaving for 12 months and more still keep their permanent residence in Moldova. As a result the number of international emigrations is largely under-estimated by the SRP and also the number of (return) immigrations of Moldovan citizens. As far as the completeness of the coverage is concerned two age groups are presenting a significant level of under-coverage: According to SE SIRC Registru data the under-coverage of the children between 8 and 14 years old is caused by the non-documentation of the persons from this category because they do not request it. Children under 8 years are fully documented through the Birth Project and those older than 14 were registered through the Documentation at 14 years old Project. There are two reasons why the number of persons around 62 to 67 years old is relatively low: (i) The under-coverage due to the fact that some persons were not documented through the 23

24 Pensioners Project as they were still working at the time this project was implemented. (ii) The figures can be also lower due to the smaller number of newborns during the period that covers the years of the Second World War and the famine years, following immediately afterwards. Other problems of coverage exist according to SE SIRC Registru : The citizens of the Republic of Moldova who live in the Transnistrian region and are legally documented (upon their request) with identity documents of the Republic of Moldova ( out of an estimated number of persons living in the Transnistrian region and in the city of Bender). The remaining citizens did not yet request the official authorities of the Republic of Moldova to be documented. About 92,000 persons are included with a permanent residence abroad (but these could be identified distinctly for statistical purposes) More than 60,000 persons are registered in the records of the State Registry of Population without having a registered address of place of residence. This group of persons includes those who have been removed from the records and are not registered at their new place of residence, the ones who have left for the Transnistrian region, the ones who have been recorded in the State Register of Population through different documentation projects and the ones who are not requested to have a residence visa. Considering these deficiencies, for now the SRP cannot be seen as a fully reliable source related to international migration. Before introducing this data source for statistics, data should be regularly checked and analyzed by statisticians in order to identify the possible weak points existing in the data collection and the maintenance of the system Other potential future data providers Additionally to the institutions and data sources mentioned above, the following ministries or public administrations are dealing with international migration and managing databases on individuals and documents where some information related to international migration may be found. All of these are briefly described hereunder putting in evidence the potential interest for the development on the Migration Profile. Ministry of Labour, Social Protection and Family The main topics related to migration under this Ministry are the social protection and support to persons who are victims of trafficking in human beings (THB) and the group of vulnerable persons (potential victims of THB). The main support provided by the social protection system to these people at risk is cash benefits and social services. It is necessary to mention that the identification of THB potential victims is a complex of activities, which are the responsibility of the Multidisciplinary Teams (MDT), in cooperation with the MDT members, community institutions and all public administration levels institutions. All these actors collect the information about the persons found in difficult situations, associated with specific circumstances that could end up in a situation of THB. In conformity with these data, the decision on the eligibility of these persons to benefit of services and allowances offered by the protection system is taken. These risks are related also to migration, specifically to the risk of illegal migration, but it also depends on the specific situation of the person. 24

25 The identification of the THB victims and potential victims is a tool to prevent the THB phenomenon itself, as well as the re-victimization in a repeated situation of THB, by assisting the victims/potential victims coming from poor families from rural areas, having a low education level, not having a profession and/or a job, and not being documented, in some cases. National Employment Agency The NEA is an administrative body under the MLSPF that administrates and manages the data on unemployed people and the labour force migration which includes legal emigration to work abroad and legal immigration to work in Moldova. People who are seeking a job are introduced in the Information System of Labour Market. The database covers all citizens of Moldova dealing with NEA, including those who returned from abroad and are seeking for a job, refugees with official status and the foreigners with residence permit. People who do not obtain the status of unemployed are included in a separate database which is a integrate module of the Informational System of Labour Market. The Information System of Labour Market contains among other variables basic personal demographic data including education, information on previous work and reason for unemployment that may refer to the link with the international migration. Regarding the labour force migration the NEA does not manage a database but a simple list of persons, in case of Moldovan labour emigrants, and the criterion for registration in this list is the registration at the National Social Insurance House by signing an individual social insurance contract before departure abroad. Information on foreigners who were granted the right to work in Moldova includes the country of origin and previous occupations of the person. For Moldovan citizens employed abroad the country of destination, sex, age groups and the place of permanent residence in Moldova are recorded. Data collected by the NEA is planned to be integrated in SIIAMA. With the support of SPES project "Strengthening Moldova's capacity to manage labour and return migration" improvements are expected through the development of the Labour Market Evidence database. National Social Insurance House The NSIH administrates and manages the public system of social insurance. The system of social insurance concerns the working age population, those who have worked, those who are currently working legally in Moldova and those who are working abroad with a legally registered contract. The data regarding contributors in the system of social insurance are included in the State Register of the Individual Records in the Public Social Insurance (REVIND) which is linked with the State Register of Population, the State Tax Register and the National Inter-administrative Register. The variables recorded in the REVIND include among others data identifying the person and basic demographic characteristics. At present, it is possible to extract from the REVIND data on persons having an individual social insurance contract, including legal immigrants and Moldovan citizens working abroad. The data about insured emigrants and immigrants may be useful for Migration Profile and may be used for developing and targeting the national labour and social protection policies. 25

26 Ministry of Health The MoH is managing the data on medical staff in the public medical system, including the specialists who abandoned their professional work within public health institutions. The Ministry also follows the cohorts of students in the medical sector including nurses. Starting from 2007, data on medical staff having high education employed in public health system are updated on a regular annual basis in a centralized database at the level of MoH. In 2010, specific software for managing the database of RM health system human resources was developed; that gives the possibility to select potential migrants but at present, there is no possibility to extract from this database information on medical personnel who have left for abroad. MoH is not capable to regularly monitor the health status of Moldovan citizens residing abroad, as there is no reliable list of persons abroad, and migration is often illegal. MoH does not pay specific attention to the health status of foreign immigrants living on the territory of Moldova. The health status of foreign immigrants cannot be monitored as long as medical services are not requested and these persons are not presenting themselves as migrants. Still, some surveys and ad hoc HBS modules are carried out periodically on these aspects. National Company of Medical Insurance The CNAM administrates and manages the system of compulsory health insurance. The system includes the whole population in the Republic of Moldova. Also foreigners with residence permit are included as well as citizens who left to work abroad but only those who before leaving have purchased the medical insurance coverage. The data regarding contributors, contributions and insured persons are included in the Automated Informational System Compulsory Medical Insurance (SIAAOAM) which is linked on line with the State Register of Population, and has offline interactions with the State Tax Register, Register of Legal Entities, Register of NSIH (REVIND), the database of Treasury and Mail Office. Among other basic personal data the SIAAOAM includes the socio-economic status (child, pensioner, disabled, employed, etc.), and the place of permanent residence. At current stage, there is no possibility to extract from this database (SIAAOAM) information on individuals who left or who will leave the country during any fixed time period. Ministry of Education The Ministry of Education manages the data on pupils and students enrolled at the different levels of education system but the main attention is on children enrolled in the compulsory education (primary and secondary level). Data are collected annually by school directors at primary level and monitored by every district s Department of education. The information related to migration issues are about: (i) children not in education because of emigration; (ii) pupils studying abroad; (iii) children without parents (left alone); (iv) and students abroad. Every child is characterized by home address (from district register), name, date of birth, sex, class and names, place of work, education, contact information of the parents. A centralized database does not exist. Data are provided to the Ministry based on its ad-hoc request and not centralized. Nevertheless, the schools should be able to provide information on their pupils 26

27 who left abroad. Such data, if centralized under the Ministry of Education and aggregated on country level could, be useful information for the Migration Profile. Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration The MFAEI (i) manages the data on consular records on the citizens of the Republic of Moldova with temporary or permanent residence abroad, (ii) issues visas for entry of foreigners in the Republic of Moldova and (iii) documents Moldovans with diplomatic and service passports. The Ministry does not have currently a functional informational system but a technical cooperation project is aiming at the development of the Automated Informational System "Consul" which will be in the future a component part of the state information system SIIAMA. Work is being carried out now in cooperation with IOM to make possible the on-line consular registration by the Moldovans residing abroad. The data on visa issuance and the one regarding the consular records related to Moldovan citizens who settled with permanent residence abroad could be helpful in the future for the Migration Profile. Border Guard Service The BGS administrates the State borders and keeps the records of border crossing processes. Every foreigner entering for the first time in the country is attributed an individual identification code. Data on entries and exits are stored in the SIISG that is linked on-line with the SRP, and is an active module of SIIAMA. Data recorded on persons crossing the border include the citizenship, the IDNP of the person, the direction of border crossing (entry or exit) and the country of origin or destination. Theoretically this IDNP code allows linking all records concerning entries and exits of a given person but in practice there are some errors due to problems in identifying foreign citizens, more than one unique IDNP code could be attributed to the same person. Moreover, due to the conflict situation between Transnistria and the Moldovan authorities not all the borders are controlled and in case of non-recorded events the individual migration trajectory will become illogical 5. Aggregated data produced from the border crossing data are partly available in the SIIAMA reports. These data represent the cumulative number of Moldovan citizens, who left abroad by sex, age group and duration of absence and cumulative number of foreigners who entered the country disaggregated by duration of stay or by citizenship, and by age group and sex. Data cover emigrants, Moldovan citizens who left since 2005 and are supposed to be living abroad, and immigrants (foreigners only) who arrived since 2005 and are not yet recorded as having left Moldova. Other statistical data are produced regularly for the needs of the National Commission for Population Development and for the NBS. The application of a specific methodology for identifying international migrants among those persons crossing the State border may help to produce statistics on international migrants that could be very useful for the Migration Profile. Center for Combating the Trafficking in Persons 5 Individual migration trajectories are illogical if two entries or two exists are following each other by time. 27

28 This subdivision of the Ministry of Interior is a specialized body established to prevent the trafficking in human beings. The Mission of the CCTP is to investigate on, arrest and prosecute persons and organizations involved in the THB in the Republic of Moldova and in the region. Its activities are reported to the Automatic Information System of Legal Entities (Directorate of information and Operative evidence, MoIA). Statistics produced based on the collected information include: number of THB cases (Art. 165 Criminal Code); trafficking of children (Art. 206 Criminal Code); smuggling of children (Art. 207 Criminal Code); pimping (Art. 220, Criminal Code), illegal border crossing (ART. 362/1 Criminal Code). Starting 2011 the automated evidence of THB victims is being done. Considering the importance of the subject, the data produced by CCTP could be useful for the Extended Migration Profile. National Bank of Moldova The NBM establishes and implements the monetary and currency policy of the State. The banking system of Moldova operates 26 fast money transfer systems, which cover almost all the World, including all countries where migrants from Moldova are concentrated. The National Bank of Moldova produces and publishes monthly statistical data on money transfers made by natural persons, still NBM as well as commercial banks making transfers, does not possess sufficient information to qualify such transfers as belonging to economic migrants (remittances). Due to the specific methodology implemented by banks for counting transfers it is difficult to identify remittances among the total transfers. As smaller amounts ($ 100 or less) are aggregated by the correspondent banks, money entries in Moldova cannot be disaggregated by country of origin of the remittances but only the country of correspondent banks. As a base for evaluating economical migrants transfers can serve the statistical researches (surveys) specialized in economical migration and remittances. NBM opts for making such survey on a regularly basis, following a unique methodology, thus, ensuring the comparability in the dynamics of statistical data received 28

29 Section 3. The compliance with the international and European standards on international migration statistics The recommendations on international migration statistics have been published by the United Nations in Parallels to this document the United Nations (UN) and the Conference of European Statisticians (CES) recommendations on population and housing censuses and UN principles and recommendations on vital statistics also deal with statistics on international migration. More recently the EU Regulation on statistics on migration and international protection 862/2007 regulates the production the statistics in this field for all countries of the European Economic Area (EEA). This Regulation may be considered as a standard for Europe in all areas of international migration statistics Statistics on international migration, resident population and acquisition of citizenship (Art. 3 of the EU Regulation) Country of residence and population stock relevant to international migration a. International recommended definitions The basic definition of an international migrant given by the UN (1998) is: An international migrant is defined as any person who changes his or her country of usual residence. The definition of country of usual residence is: The country in which a person lives, that is to say, the country in which he or she has a place to live where he or she normally spends the daily period of rest. Temporary travel abroad for purposes of recreation, holiday, visits to friends and relatives, business, medical treatment or religious pilgrimage does not change a person's country of usual residence. An international migrant, also identified as a long-term international migrant by the UN is accordingly defined as: Long term migrant: person who moves to a country other than that of his or her usual residence for a period of at least a year (12 months), so that the country of destination effectively becomes his or her new country of usual residence. From the perspective of the country of departure the person will be an emigrant and from that of the country of arrival the person will be an immigrant. 29

30 The UN (1998) also define the concept of short-term migrant as a person who moves to a country other than that of his or her usual residence for a period of at least 3 months but less than a year (12 months). Generally, current annual migration data collection by international bodies (Eurostat and UN Statistical Division) covers only long-term migrants or request to supply these data separately from those of short-term migrants. Nevertheless, the need of information on short-term labour migrants and seasonal worker become more and more important for national policies and the distinction between these two types of migrations is important. In order to support its migration policy the EU adopted in 2007 a Regulation on statistics on migration and international protection with relevance for all EEA countries (EU 2007). This regulation fixes the standard compulsory data set to be provided starting from 2008 data. The definitions and concepts included in the EU Regulation are in agreement with the above mentioned UN recommended definitions as much as it is possible in the EU context. Thus, similarly to the UN recommendations, the EU standard requires using the concept of the usual residence when defining international migrants. However, it is clear that European statistical systems are more oriented to the population registration systems than those in other parts of World. Therefore, alternatively the usual residence could be defined as the place of legal or registered residence (EU 2007). Thus the adjusted definition with EEA relevance is: "usual residence" means the place at which a person normally spends the daily period of rest, regardless of temporary absences for purposes of recreation, holiday, visits to friends and relatives, business, medical treatment or religious pilgrimage or, in default, the place of legal or registered residence. Concerning the temporary absent or temporary present persons the UN recommendations on Vital Statistics (UN 2001) stated that the usual residence of these persons should be identified according to clearly stated time-limits of presence in or absence to determine whether or not the person is usually resident in that country. b. Assessment of the compliance of definitions in Moldova with European standards In Moldova the concept of usual country of residence has not been implemented so far, particularly as far as the time criterion is concerned (see Annex 2). Methodological notes on the website of the NBS provide the following definitions for the population enumerated: Resident population: number of persons, permanently resident on the given territory, including the persons temporarily absent. Present population refers to the number of persons present at the Census moment, including temporarily resident persons. The first definition limits the population of the country to a specified category of the population while those who cannot be identified as permanent residents but are living continuously in the country for fixed time are clearly excluded. The concept of permanent residence even if widely used in the past and still used in some countries, is not among the recommended concepts for population 30

31 statistics and particularly for that of international migration. In conditions where many people move abroad for longer or shorter periods with the intention to return, this concept cannot effectively cover the large part of the international migrations and thus does not allow capture the current situation of the population correctly Flow of international immigrants and emigrants a. International recommended definitions The EU Regulation defines an international migrant as follows (EU 2007): "immigrant" means a person undertaking an immigration; where "immigration" means the action by which a person establishes his or her usual residence in the territory of a Member State for a period that is, or is expected to be, of at least 12 months, having previously been usually resident in another Member State or a third country; "emigrant" means a person undertaking an emigration; where "emigration" means the action by which a person, having previously been usually resident in the territory of a Member State, ceases to have his or her usual residence in that Member State for a period that is, or is expected to be, of at least 12 months; According to these definitions, the time criterion for identification of international migrant is at least 12 months in or out of the concerned country. In practice, it may be based either on intended or actual duration of stay depending on the data source used. Also, the Recommendations for the 2000 Censuses of Population and Housing in the ECE Region required to distinguish long-term and shortterm migrants based on 12 months criterion (UNECE 2004). The EU Regulation introduces the concepts on immigration and emigration for migrations for at least 12 months. Accordingly only long-term migrants have to be considered for counting the number of immigrations and emigrations. b. Assessment of the compliance with European standards At the end of year 2010 became effective a new Law on the regime for foreigners in the Republic of Moldova, replacing the previous Law on migration. The new Law could have in the future an impact on the concepts and definitions currently used in statistics and it equally offers the opportunity of establishing them in accordance with international recommendations through separate regulations. It should be mentioned that within the new Law the main definitions related to migration, emigration and immigration were excluded, leaving only the concepts of labour migration, labour emigration and labour immigration clearly legally defined (Law on labour migration; see the 31

32 description under point 4.2.). However, the definitions used until now will presumably remain in use until new definitions will have been adopted by legal or regulatory act. The definitions used so far in Moldova for annual migration statistics were those given by the Law on Migration and as published by the NBS in statistical publications and on the website of the NBS. The general concept of migration is defined as follows: Migration - the movement of persons in territory, followed by a change of their place of residence. As seen above (see also Annex 2), according to the internationally recommended definitions any person who changes his or her country of usual residence is a migrant, or more precisely immigrant in the country of destination and emigrant in the country of previous residence. In Moldova only foreigners are defined as immigrants. Immigrant - foreign citizen or person without citizenship who got the right for permanent or temporary residence in the Republic of Moldova. Thus, generally the citizens of Moldova are excluded from the international immigration flow. Still, Moldovan citizens immigrating from abroad can appear in statistics among repatriates (see section 4). However, the used concept of repatriate cannot effectively fulfil this gap because it considers only persons who intend to stay permanently in Moldova. By definition emigrants in Moldova are only national citizens and emigration flow does not include any foreign citizens. Emigrant- citizen of the Republic of Moldova who leaves abroad for permanent or temporary residence on the territory of another state. Accordingly emigrations of foreigners after living in Moldova either permanently or temporarily cannot be captured by statistics, while citizens of Moldova who left abroad for both temporary and permanent residence in another country are included in statistics. Conclusively, on the one hand, all foreigners are counted as immigrants, while foreigners will never appear among emigrants. On the other hand, all national citizens can be counted as emigrants while only those who are classified as repatriates can be counted in the inflow of migrants. Normally, international migration flow statistics are used for updating annual population data. Considering the above mentioned definitions, it is impossible to estimate correctly the annual population changes due to international migration because the flows of foreigners and Moldovan citizens are identified differently and net migration figures based on these definitions are nonsense. Concerning the time criterion used in the definitions of the resident population and international migrants Moldova should apply the 12 months rule. The distinction based on the concept of permanent and temporary residence as applied in Moldova does not allow identifying international migrants as requested by the international recommendations, following the 12 months rule. Even if the existing national definitions on international migration cover two important aspects of the Moldovan migration policy (emigration of nationals and immigration of foreigners), they do not support the overall understanding of migration processes in Moldova and are probably not sufficient for the future policy development in the country. Moreover, for any cooperation with other 32

33 countries and data sharing in the field of international migration statistics comparable concepts and definitions are of primary importance Requested statistics a. Annual data collection on international migration in the EEA The UN Recommendations on statistics of international migration (UN 1998) propose a long list of recommended tabulations for both immigration and emigration flows as well as for population stocks relevant to migration. 6 Even if the need of detailed data for analysis of international migration cannot be negated, for the annual statistical output this list is clearly too demanding. For countries of the EEA a minimum set of obligatory data is implemented starting from 2008 reference year based on the Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 July 2007 on Community statistics on migration and international protection 7. Among other data (e. g. on asylum, residence permits and enforcement of illegal migrants) collected under the Regulation annual data on total flows of immigration and emigration are requested that include all categories of migrants. Even if the current EU Moldova partnership framework does not request Moldova to supply international migration statistics according to EU Regulation, it would be useful to follow the principles of this document as, concerning migration flows and population stock relevant to international migration, the requested is a minimum data set (we may call it European minimum ) that should be available in all countries, not only in the EU. This minimum (but compulsory for EU Member States) set of data would seriously diminish the availability of emigration data (see contents of compulsory data set in Annex 1) in international databases and would allow only monitoring general trends of migration and would not be sufficient for the migration analysis. Therefore a combined set of obligatory and voluntary data is requested from countries in the EEA. Actually, this set of data follows largely the earlier data collection program under the framework of the Joint UNSD, UNECE, Eurostat and ILO Questionnaire (valid up to year 2007) on international migration. The required set of data for EEA countries includes the following tabulations: (a) number of immigrants moving to the territory of the country: by citizenship, age and sex; by country of birth, age and sex; by country of previous usual residence, age and sex; by country of birth and citizenship (b) number of emigrants moving from the territory of the Member State disaggregated as follows: by citizenship, age and sex; 6 The full text of these recommendations including the list of tabulations is available on UN website unsd/publication/seriesm/seriesm_58rev1e.pdf. 7 A summary of regulations No 862/2007and No 351/2010 as well as links to the full text of these regulations is given in Annex 1. 33

34 by country of birth, age and sex; by country of countries of next usual residence, age and sex; by country of birth and citizenship (c) number of persons having their usual residence in the Member State at the end of the reference period, disaggregated as follows: by citizenship by age and sex; by country of birth by age and sex; by country of birth and citizenship (c) number of persons having their usual residence in the Member State having acquired national citizenship during the reference year and having formerly held the citizenship of another country or having formerly been stateless, disaggregated by age and sex, and by the former citizenship b. Assessment of the compliance with European standards Compared to the set of data collected currently in the EEA only a small part is currently covered by available data in Moldova and even these data are not fully compliant with the internationally recommended definitions (see Annex 3). Concretely, the number of international immigrants moving to the territory of Moldova is available and disseminated on the NBS website but these data cover only foreigners according to the definition. Separately the number of repatriates is shown, a figure that may include both nationals and foreigners who have lived in Moldova in the past. Data on repatriates cannot be safely considered as the remaining part of total international immigration in addition to foreigners. The distribution of foreign immigrants is available by citizenship but no cross-classification by age, sex and citizenship is provided even if such data is transmitted from the SRP to NBS on both foreigners and returning Moldovan citizens. The country of birth is only provided as a binary variable (foreign born versus native born). The country of previous residence is available for repatriated immigrants but not for foreign immigrants. Data on emigrants is available and disseminated on the NBS website based on data extracted from the State Register of Population. According to the definition only Moldovan citizens who deregister their permanent residence in Moldova are included. The citizens who leave temporally even for more than 12 months as well as the foreigners are not included. Only the distribution by country of next residence is available without cross-tabulation by sex and age-groups. The latter as well as data on emigration of foreigners should be available as the needed data is transmitted by the SRP. No data on country of birth of emigrants is available. In addition to the data published by the NBS, the SIIAMA data set proposes as Table 6 Statistical data regarding emigration of Moldovan citizens (with withdrawn residence) for getting settled with permanent residence on the territory of other states, distributed by sex, age groups and country of destination also based on data from the SPR. However, these data do not correspond to the annual number of emigrations but are cumulative numbers of emigrated citizens in SPR starting The composition of the total population by migration related characteristics, citizenship and country of birth, is available in from Census 2004 but only in paper publication and not electronically on the NBS website except the distribution of the population by country of birth (Table 8. Population 34

35 by place of birth and main nationalities, by sex and area). Citizenship has not been among priorities for the publication of census data in Moldova while more detailed data are available by (ethnic) nationality (see section 4). Unfortunately ethnic nationality does not give clear indication on citizenship and is not considered in EU standards. A table from the 2004 Census proposes the population distributed by groups of citizenship, groups of age and sex but only foreigners with permanent residence are included and the breakdown by individual countries of citizenship is not available. The distribution of the population by country of birth is also available in 2004 census results but the distribution of population by age and sex and country of birth is not published. NBS estimates the population figures after census based on the results of the last Population Census updated by considering data on the natural increase obtained through the registration of births and deaths and data on immigrations and emigrations obtained from the SPR. However NBS does not produce any annual update of population figures by citizenship and by country of birth. As far as the population stock relevant to international migration is concerned, considering (i) that the permanent population concept was used in 2004 census and not the usual residence as recommended by the UN, (ii) that the definitions on migrants are not in accordance with UN recommended definitions and (iii) that census results are not annually updated, no reliable figures on the distribution of the population by citizenship and by country of birth may be obtained for developing and updating the Migration Profile. In the SIIAMA reports, Tables 4.1 and 4.2 are proposing the distribution of the number of foreigners who stay in the Republic of Moldova, by sex, age group, and country of citizenship (Table 4.1) or duration of presence (Table 4.2). These tables are exclusively based on cumulative interpretation of border crossing data since The total number of foreigners is clearly exaggerated even if only recent foreign immigrants arrived in Moldova since 2005 are included. The reason for exaggeration could be found in the fact that the departure of foreign immigrants is not fully covered at border points. Still the border crossing data is theoretically the best tool to identify the number of international migrants according UN and EU recommendations if the border control is efficient and exhaustive. A statistical treatment of individual data extracted from the border crossing database could allow identifying all international migrants and their characteristics, which cannot be possible by considering the data from the State Register of Population where most of emigrated citizens are registered as permanent resident in Moldova. Two other SIIAMA reports (Tables 7 and 8) are proposing statistical data regarding the foreigners and stateless persons with temporary residence in the RM, distributed by citizenship and scope of stay (Table 7) or type of documents issued (Table 8). These tables are produced on the basis of data obtained from the BMA and the SRP but the total figures do not correspond. In addition a statistical table available on the SRP website also presents the distribution of the population by country of citizenship but the total number of foreigners is different compared with both figures provided by Tables 7 and 8. Data on acquisitions of Moldovan citizenship is not currently available in the set of statistics published by the NBS or in the SIIAMA reports. However information on persons who acquire the Moldovan citizenship is recorded in the SRP and accordingly statistical tables could be theoretically produced on this base following the EU standards. 35

36 In conclusion the main reasons for the gaps compared to the EU-recommended data collection are due to the different definition of migrants (only foreigners are included in immigrations and Moldovan citizens in emigrations) and to the fact that the definition of the resident population is not based on the concept of usual residence. All individual characteristics requested by the EU data collection are available in Census data and in the SPR including those that are related to international migration but the consistency between all available figures has to be improved in order to serve as reliable support for the Migration Profile Statistics on international protection (Art. 4 of the EU Regulation) a. Annual data collection on asylum in the EEA Asylum is an important component of the migration processes and the data collection on asylum has always been organized differently compared to the one on migration flow and population with immigration background. Asylum statistics have been traditionally collected by UNHCR. Since the beginning of the 90s these data are also collected within the EU. The EU Regulation on migration and international protection adopted in 2007 includes a request for a detailed data collection related to international protection and more precisely all phases of the asylum procedure. In most EEA countries this request is managed by the Ministry of Interior and the statistical institution is generally not involved except for disseminating the data. The EU Regulation requests the following data: Monthly data on the number of first applications for asylum (flow data) Number of persons having submitted an application for international protection or having been included in such an application as a family member during the reference period by age and sex, and by the citizenship of the persons concerned Number of pending applications on the beginning of every month (stock data) Number of persons who are the subject of applications for international protection under consideration by the responsible national authority at the end of the reference period by age and sex, and by the citizenship of the persons concerned Monthly data on the number of asylum applications that have been withdrawn (flow data) Number of applications for international protection having been withdrawn during the reference period. by age and sex, and by the citizenship of the persons concerned Additionally data is requested on first instance asylum decisions, unaccompanied minors, final decisions taken in appeal and resettlements. 36

37 b. Assessment of the compliance with European standards In Moldova the statistical data on asylum seekers and refugees are published by the NBS. Disaggregation is available by country of origin, sex and age group. These data represent the total stock of concerned persons in the country at 1 January where no distinction is made between asylum seekers and refugees. Data on new asylum applications received during a year and annual number of decisions made on applications are not available. Accordingly available data on asylum and refugees are not compliant with the current data collection in the EEA. Fortunately more data can be produced as the primary information exists in the BMA database on asylum. More complete data will need to be included in the Migration Profile even if the number of asylum seekers is very low in Moldova Statistics on the prevention of illegal entry and stay (Art. 5 of the EU Regulation) a. Annual data collection on asylum in the EEA As for asylum statistics, statistics on the prevention of illegal entry and stay have been collected in EU countries starting from the beginning of the 90s. Also, like for asylum statistics, the data collection was not handled by the statistical institutions but by the ministry in charge of security and border control. The EU Regulation adopted in 2007 included the following compulsory data requests: Annual number of foreign citizens (third-country nationals) refused entry to the country s (Member State s) territory at the external border by grounds for refusal, the nationality (citizenship) of the persons refused and the type of border (land, air or sea) at which they were refused entry. Refused entry means foreign nationals who are refused entry at the external border because they do not fulfill all the entry conditions. Annual number of foreign citizens (third-country nationals) found to be illegally present in the country s (Member State s) territory under national laws relating to immigration by age and sex, and by citizenship of the persons concerned Illegally present (third-country) foreign nationals found to be illegally present means third-country nationals who are officially found to be on the territory of country (a Member State) and who do not fulfill, or no longer fulfill, the conditions for stay or residence in that country (Member State). b. Assessment of the compliance with European standards The following tables are available as SIIAMA reports: 37

38 Table 4.3. Statistical data regarding the number of expulsion decisions issued by the courts regarding foreigners and stateless persons. Table 4.4. Statistical data regarding the number of decision to reduce the period of stay, issued by the police bodies in regards to foreigners and stateless persons. Table 4.5. Statistical data regarding the number of violations of the stay rules committed by foreigners and stateless persons on the territory of the RM. The content of these tables should be adapted in order to fit with EU standards and all needed elements seem to be available. Refusals at entry should be identified as well as those in illegal stay in the country and were apprehended and thereafter distributed by age, sex and country of citizenship. Such data should be considered in the Migration Profile Statistics on residence permits (Art. 6 of the EU Regulation) a. Annual data collection on residence permits in the EEA Residence permits represent a new topic of statistical data collection in EEA countries and the data set to be provided on a compulsory base is detailed in the EU Regulation. As defined in the EU Regulation, residence permit means any authorisation issued by the authorities of a country (Member State) allowing a foreign (third-country) national to stay legally on its territory, with the exception of visas, permits issued pending examination of an application for a residence permit or for asylum, and authorisations issued for a stay of a duration not exceeding six months. The data set to be provided includes: Annual number of first residence permit issued (flow data) Number of permits issued during the reference period whereby the person is being granted permission to reside for the first time, by citizenship, by the reason for the permit being issued and by the length of validity of the permit. Total number of valid residence permit on 31 December of each year (stock data) Number of valid permits at the end of the reference period (number of permits issued, not withdrawn and not expired), by citizenship, by the reason for the issue of the permit and by the length of validity of the permit; In addition the number of long-term residents 8 at the same date has to be provided, by citizenship. b. Assessment of the compliance with European standards 8 According the European Council Directive 2003/109/EC 38

39 The Law on the Regime for Foreigners in the Republic of Moldova (Act No. 200/2010) gives the rules for issuing residence permits to foreigners for temporary stay or for permanent residence. A foreigner can request the competent authority for foreigners to be granted a temporary residence right on the basis of a long stay visa for the purpose it was issued as mentioned in the Law. Depending on the reason for the request, the temporary residence right may be granted for a period of up to 5 years or for a different period in cases provided by law. Such temporary permit can be renewed. A permanent residence right may be granted under the conditions stated in the Law for an indefinite period to a foreign holder of a temporary residence right. Currently, no statistical data is produced and published by the NBS and no SIIAMA report deals with residence permits. The current SIIAMA dataset includes tables on the number of invitations issued to foreigners. However these data on invitations do not help to produce data on the number of issued residence permits per year and on the number of valid permits at the end of each year. Invitations are requested for applying entry visa for citizens of selected foreign countries only and have no direct link to (do not give any indication on the number of) issue of residence permits. The statistical data requested by the EU Regulation can be produced as the primary information exists in the SRP. According to the Law on the regime for foreigners records on foreigners will be kept in the Information Subsystem of the Competent Authority for Foreigners that is a system processing foreigners personal data necessary for the execution of legal functions related to foreigners admission to, residence in and deportation from the territory of the Republic of Moldova. If all issued residence permits and the relevant characteristics of persons are recorded in this system, the data requested by the EU Regulation can be produced. Detailed data on residence permits are needed for the Migration Profile in order to complete the data on the foreign population Statistics on remittances (not included in the data set requested by the EU Regulation) Starting from 2009 the EU introduced a new statistical survey under Balance of Payments Statistics. This survey collects data on workers remittances recorded by the responsible authorities. Unfortunately there is no link between these data and those on international migration. In Moldova information on remittances is collected within the HBS as being a part of household income. Data on the total amount of remittances are published by the NBS in the different tables under the category of other income. HBS results are published in an annual publication Aspects of the Living-Standard of the Population containing detailed information on income, expenditure, housing conditions, household food consumption, availability of durable goods etc. Collecting data on remittances as a part of the overall household income is theoretically appropriate but generally self-declared incomes tend to be under-reported. In the case of Moldova these figures may be also seriously under-estimated. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that the number of household members who were reported to work abroad in the HBS is by one fourth smaller compared with similar data collected by the LFS and the Census

40 Data collected in the LFMS linked to the 2008 LFS also included information on the number of emigrants distributed by group of monthly average amount of money sent to their household living in Moldova. These data are published by the NBS in the publication entitled Labour Force Migration. These data are not comparable with those obtained by the HBS as they do not present the same type of information. The usefulness of these data on remittances for the Migration Profile is evident and specific indicators should be developed in order to estimate the impact of the phenomenon on the wellbeing of the households who are receiving remittances compared to others. Keeping in mind the stated limitations concerning the data produced by the National Bank of Moldova a revision of the questions asked on remittances in both the LFS and HBS could ensure a regular production of data. 40

41 Section 4. Other available statistical data related to international migration There exist other statistical data available in Moldova on topics related to international migration that are not covered by the international recommendations and data collection practices. In some cases the terms used to define the concepts are different from that of international recommendations and glossaries. Accordingly the produced data cannot be used without precise metadata detailing the definitions and the coverage of the involved population groups. Nevertheless all statistical data presented hereafter are crucial for the Migration Profile 4.1. Stocks of Moldovans living abroad All main statistical official data source on persons like census, LFS and HBS collect information on persons who have kept their permanent residence in Moldova but are temporarily abroad even for more than 12 months. Some administrative databases including the SRP and the border crossing database also include data on these persons living temporarily abroad. In the methodological notes from the section Metadata, Census 2004 on the NBS website the following definition is found about those persons: Persons who were temporary absent but still having permanent residence in Moldova. The Census enumerated all household members including 273 thousands who were temporary absent but without considering the length of their stay abroad. All temporarily absent persons were counted within the total (permanent) population of country but separate tables were also produced on persons temporarily abroad. Disaggregation by sex and age, by reason and duration of absence, by country of current location, by marital status, by education and by place of permanent residence in Moldova were published with different combinations of variables. No tables were produced on the usual activity status and occupation of the absent persons. Such data would be useful in the Migration Profile for comparing population groups who were temporarily abroad with those who lived in the country at the time of census census data are available electronically on the NBS website but unfortunately the census publication dedicated to migration Volume 2. «Population migration» is only available on paper. Similar data are also collected regularly in the LFS through the question on household members aged 15 years and over who are working or looking for work abroad. For 2009 the estimated figure was 295 thousand (average of the four quarterly survey waves). Data available on this population will be discussed hereunder under the topic dealing with labour migration. Also the HBS collects data on absent household members but these data are not currently published as that survey is devoted to income and expenditure of households. Nevertheless NBS provided for the purpose of this report an estimated figure of 226 thousand of household members being abroad (average of the four quarterly survey waves) for 2009 that is one third less compared to the one obtained with the LFS. 41

42 A cumulated number of Moldovan citizens who left the country is proposed in the SIIAMA Tables 3.1 and 3.2 based on records in the Border crossing database. These tables are updated monthly and include number of persons by sex and age group disaggregated by municipality of residence in Moldova (Table 3.1) and by duration of absence (Table 3.2). These data as based on the cumulative number of Moldovan citizens who exit the country and did not re-enter afterwards according the records of border crossing registered by the BGS. The difficulties in linking entries and exits of the same person and the existence of uncontrolled borders on the left side of the Nistru make this data largely unreliable with an exaggerated total of more than 800 thousand Moldovans who left the country and are considered to be abroad. Vice versa, the 89,000 citizens living abroad estimated based on the SRP (Table 6) correspond to the cumulative number of citizens that have withdrawn their permanent residence in Moldova since Potentially the Consular Register developed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration could be an additional source for the data on Moldovan citizens who settled with permanent residence abroad. The template for a table that includes data disaggregated by country of destination and year of migration is already designed among SIIAMA tables but data are not yet available. International recommendations on migration statistics do not deal specifically with the stocks of nationals or native-born persons who are living abroad or temporarily absent. However, these groups are mentioned among the population sub-groups that may have special treatment in population censuses. Considering that in Moldova emigration is a key problem in the area of international migration providing reliable data is crucial for supporting the relevant policies. These data would be essential for the development and updating of the Migration Profile. Practically only temporarily absent persons who stay abroad for more than 12 months should be counted. Disaggregation is available by duration of stay abroad based on border crossing data collected by the BGS (SIIAMA Table 3.2). For all other data sources, the persons temporary absent were identified according to information given by household members living in Moldova. Inevitably there is a significant undercoverage as only those temporary absent persons who still had some household member in Moldova were possibly identified. In conclusion currently available data on the stock of Moldovan citizens living abroad are not reliable and cannot be used as such in the Migration Profile without additional improvements Labour migration In addition to the general concept of immigrant and emigrant the concept of labour force migration is used in official statistics in Moldova according the following definition: Labour migration - voluntary departure of citizens of the Republic of Moldova abroad, and also the voluntary entrance of foreign citizens and persons without citizenship on the territory of the Republic of Moldova with the purpose of having a labour activity. Even if the above mentioned definition uses the term migration, there are no statistical data published on emigration of citizens of Moldova for work as well as on immigration of foreigners for 42

43 the purpose of work 9. The only available data characterize the persons who are working abroad or who have worked abroad in the past. Thus these are stock data only on Moldovan citizens, which do not include data on foreigners working in Moldova. The NBS produces such statistics from the 2004 census and the LFS. In addition the ad hoc Labour Force Migration Survey (LFMS) carried out in 2008 collected detailed data on persons who have left abroad for work. The results of this survey are disseminated in a specific publication entitled Labour force migration in the Republic of Moldova Among data published on temporary absent persons enumerated by the 2004 Census some are published on persons who went abroad for the reason of work. This information was obtained from household members present at the time of census. Data are disaggregated by administrativeterritorial units and the country where person stayed at the time of census. The annual LFS publication includes data on the population aged 15 years and over, working or looking for work abroad. These data are available starting from 2000 annually and quarterly. The total figure is disaggregated by country of destination, level of education, age groups, sex, area of residence of the household (urban or rural) in Moldova. Concerning the term migrant, according to the methodology of the LFMS, this survey included a separate questionnaire for persons who were members of a private household, had their permanent residence in Moldova but were temporary absent at the time of interview for work or looking for a job abroad. Data on these persons included information on the place of permanent residence in Moldova, the groups of countries where they stayed, the reason for leaving abroad, the intended duration of stay, information characterizing the way, the cost and the sources of money they used for leaving abroad as well as their residential status abroad, the frequency of contacts with their family in Moldova etc. Similar questions were asked directly to those present at the time of survey and had worked abroad during the last 12 months. Statistical data on Moldovan citizens working abroad based on individual contracts reported to the NEA are available in SIIAMA reports (Table 5). This table is updated monthly and includes the number of citizens of Moldova whose work contract abroad was recorded in the database of the NEA. The table reflects the work of the NEA and covers only a limited number of persons actually working abroad. Therefore these data cannot be considered as relevant to assess the level of labour migration from Moldova and therefore are of limited interest for the Migration Profile. Regarding the coverage of persons working abroad the NBS surveys and Census 2004 fail to cover single person households and households who left abroad without anybody staying in the country. Therefore the published figures are underestimated and it is not concretely possible to estimate the level of this under-coverage. 9 NEA is planning to introduce in SIIAMA (table F.5) some data that would cover the emigration flows of Moldovan citizens for work but only partially. 43

44 According to the definition published in Labour Force Migration in the Republic of Moldova available on the NBS website the migrants include all persons who were abroad, for work or looking for a job, at the moment of the interview or during the last 12 months prior to the interview. Even if survey questionnaires were foreseen to collect data separately on absent migrants (answers given by other household members) and returned migrants the publication does not distinguish these two groups. Moreover, it could be important to distinguish those actually abroad at the time of interview, still working abroad but visiting the household at the time of interview and those who have returned to the household. Despite the above-mentioned problems data collected by the LFS and by the LFMS are very important for estimating the evolution of the stock of Moldovan citizens working temporarily abroad and their socio-demographic and economic characteristics. Such information is very useful for the Migration Profile Statistics on repatriates The UN recommendation considers the concept repatriates only in relation to repatriating asylumseekers and repatriating refugees. Additional concepts of returning nationals or returning migrants are used for categories of persons who return to their country of citizenship or to the country of origin after being international migrants in another country. In Moldova, up to 2010, a repatriate was defined as a citizen of the Republic of Moldova and/or the person born in the Republic of Moldova and his descendants, and also the person who previously lived for at least 10 years on the territory of the country and has the right to set for permanent residence in the Republic of Moldova according to the law. According to the new Law on the regime for foreigners that entered in force in December 2010, the new concept of repatriation concerns only foreigners and the definition is the following: Repatriation voluntary return of persons born in the Republic of Moldova and their descendants to the homeland according to law. The NBS publishes annually in the Statistical Yearbook of the Republic of Moldova the total number of repatriates disaggregated by countries from where they arrived. These data are produced directly based on records extracted from the SRP and the BMA database. Similar data are also part of the SIIAMA reports and updated monthly. Disaggregation is proposed by administrative-territorial units where persons register arrival in Moldova (Table 2.1), by country of previous residence (Table 2.2.1) and by ethnic nationality, reason of return, category of person (citizen of Moldova, born in Moldova, descendant of persons originating from Moldova or persons who lived in past for longer than 10 years in Moldova) and sex (Tables and 2.3). There are differences between the figures published by NBS and the ones in the SIIAMA reports but no metadata is available for explaining such differences. According to the definition used up to 2010 the categories of persons included under the term repatriate actually represent a specific subgroup of immigrants. These data are of specific interest 44

45 for Moldova and are doubtlessly needed for Government actions to support return migration of Moldovan emigrants. However, in order to follow international standards the data presented on repatriated persons should be included in the total number of immigrations and disaggregated by the same characteristics as requested for immigration, including their citizenship, country of birth and previous country of residence Statistics on invitations SIIAMA reports include data on invitations for foreigners in order to receive visa for entry in Moldova. Such data are produced on the basis of records in the BMA document database of invitations. Invitations are applicable to citizens of a specified group of countries for receiving an entry visa. The three SIIAMA tables (1.1, 1.2 and 1.3) produced on this basis display the number of issued, accepted and refused invitations and include disaggregation of the number of invitations by citizenship. Accepted invitations are also disaggregated by age and sex of invited person. Considering that accepted invitations give the right to foreigners for entering Moldova and not necessarily for residing in Moldova and that only part of foreigners must have such invitation in order to enter the country, these data are not relevant for international migration statistics and are not useful for the Migration Profile. 45

46 Section 5. Conclusions and recommendations Generally speaking the amount of information collected by the NBS and by various ministries through administrative procedures that is disseminated under the SIIAMA system or based on the SRP is appreciable. In some cases the situation is even better than in several neighboring EU Member States. A particular accent has been devoted to estimate the volume of international emigration as well as the number and characteristics of those citizens who emigrated and are living abroad. That is a valuable initiative and Moldova could share its experience with other emigration countries as these data are usually the weakest statistical ones in the field of international migration and very few examples of good practices exist. Despite these achievements there are several aspects of the data collection process where improvements are needed and can be achieved at short, medium or long term in order to fit with the EU standards. The following recommendations are either emerging directly from this DAR or more generally from international experiences. They should be regarded as a constructive contribution to improve the data collection system in the field of international migration, such data being a key support for the elaboration of the Extended Migration Profile. 1. The concepts and definitions in the field of international migration should be carefully scrutinized and aligned with the internationally recommended terminology and definitions and more precisely with the EU standards. If needed the legislation has to be adapted and, in some cases, the application rules should be more strictly applied (a problem largely met in the EU Member States as well). 2. Any statistical data should be disseminated with detailed metadata including information on the source of primary data, used definitions, level of coverage and assessment of reliability. These metadata are particularly needed when statistical data are produced on the basis of primary data extracted from administrative data sources. 3. For bringing concrete support to policy development and the development of the Extended Migration Profile not only the full availability of data should be ensured but also their reliability as well as the comparability with EU standards. 4. The respective roles of NBS and other public administrations in production of data on international migration should be reconsidered for improving the statistics in this field. The need for constructive and more active collaboration between two main statistical data producers that are the SE SIRC Registru and the NBS, is an urgent need. The SE SIRC Registru has strong capacities and an important know-how in technology and database management while the NBS has the competence in statistical methods and is informed on international requirements in the field of international migration statistics. 5. The SIIAMA integrated migration information system is an excellent tool for providing all data to produce the requested statistical data. However this tool is currently not operational as only two databases are integrated, the SRP and the SIISG. The 24 SIIAMA reports developed by the SE SIRC Registru are based on data received from various ministries. Unfortunately these statistical 46

47 tables are not fully consistent and the lack of statistical knowledge and consideration of international statistical recommendations is problematic. 6. The wish of the SE SIRC Registru to improve its data production by considering international recommendations is concrete and such work has already started with the support of IOM aiming to provide relevant, reliable and internationally comparable data for the Extended Migration Profile. 7. Any statistical data produced on the basis of data extracted from administrative databases should be improved by following more strictly the rules of statistical data processing including data validation. Such statistical data should be more focused on the description of the various aspects of the migration process in itself and less oriented to the monitoring of the activities performed by ministries. 8. More specifically the statistical data disseminated by SIIAMA should establish a clear distinction between flow and stock data. A complete consistency between the different tables dealing with the same topic should be ensured. Additional tables are needed in order to meet the data request according to the EU Regulation 2007/862 on Community Statistics on Migration and International Protection. Each table should be thoroughly reviewed from the point of view of content and selection rules in order to produce the recommended set of tables and to follow the EU standards. 9. The 24 SIIAMA reports provided through the ACCESS web are not accessible to the general public and the transparency is limited. It is important to note that within the EU the access to data provided by Member States to Eurostat, even the most sensitive one, is now fully free for public in the field of international migration statistics. A close collaboration between the NBS and the SE SIRC Registru would facilitate the accessibility to the public through the NBS website to the large part of the statistical data included in the SIIAMA reports. 10. The development of the Migration Profile is a unique opportunity to improve the situation in order to produce the most relevant and reliable indicators to support the migration policy in Moldova. Therefore some very relevant indicators could be produced by linking information collected by different administrations. Currently each SIIAMA table is produced by a unique data provider and there are no data that results from the combination of information collected under SIIAMA. In this perspective more investigation is needed in close cooperation with the different administrations providing data to SIIAMA. 11. As far as the NBS is concerned, beside the decennial population census this institution is carrying out on continuous base two important surveys that include information related to international migration: the LFS and the HBS. Emigration is a key issue in Moldova. Therefore the NBS could include regularly a substantial emigration module once a year in its statistical surveys (LFS and HBS). Even if Moldova has a pioneering experience in this field some additional useful advices could be found on the contents of such emigration module developed by other countries and by international institutions like the Work Bank and the UN Statistical Division. Also more specific data on children left behind and remittances could be collected through these surveys on a regular base. 47

48 We consider the organization of an additional migration survey on annual base as not needed and too demanding for NBS. Nevertheless a potential additional migration module, added to the LFS in 2014, would provide a unique opportunity to obtain more information related to international migration in parallel to census questions on that topic. 12. The next census could represent a unique opportunity to assess the coverage and completeness of data in the SRP by comparing data with those of enumerated persons in census. It would also facilitate introducing the internationally recommended concept of usually resident population in the annual population statistics after census in Moldova. Moreover, the juxtaposition of SRP and census data may serve as a starting point for creation a statistical register of the population that would better satisfy the needs on annual statistical data and would be the basis for the future register- based censuses. For this purposes specific information should be included in the census questionnaire among which the personal ID number of every enumerated person has a key importance. A close cooperation between the NBS and the SE SIRC Registru in charge of the SRP is essential in order to take maximal advantage of the next census for ensuring the consistency between these two data sources. 13. Several aggregated data are currently sent by different ministries to the NBS for producing statistical tables and dissemination. The provision of such data should be reinforced aiming at extending the number of statistical tables already accessible to the large public but also to cover additional relevant topics requested by the EU regulation. The data request should be discussed in the task forces recommended hereunder and joined with the data request for the SIIAMA reports. 14. Alternatively the best way to improve the statistical data based on administrative data sources should be to provide to the NBS the individual records of these administrative data. That will facilitate the application of all compulsory steps of statistical data processing and ensure the neutrality of the produced statistics as imposed by the law on statistics. If the transfer of individual data is not possible due to confidentiality rules, all collaborative effort should be developed so that the transferred aggregated data would correspond to international standards of reliability and comparability. However, in this situation, the quality of the statistics to be provided to the international bodies can only be partly proved by the NBS. 15. Detailed metadata should be joined to any data transferred from Ministries to NBS in order to improve the understanding, transparency and reliability of the statistical data produced. As some discrepancies could appear by comparing different tables obtained through different data sources, detailed metadata would facilitate understanding the reasons for these differences. To reduce the discrepancies of data, obtained from various sources of information, a larger integration of RM information automated systems in one national information system is recommended. 16. As in many other European countries, the data regarding emigrations of the citizens are less reliable compared to the data on the legal immigration of foreigners. Nevertheless, in Moldova there are specific possibilities to improve the situation in this field, e.g. by using the border crossing data to identify international immigrants and emigrants. 48

49 17. Considering the socio-economic consequences of the emigration of the highly-skilled and more specifically the health professionals we recommend to consider the obligation of filling in a special form when leaving their previous occupation in Moldova. Such form should include two questions (i) on whether they intend to emigrate for working abroad (ii) for how long they intend to stay abroad. 18. Sharing data with countries receiving migrants from Moldova is a concrete possibility for checking the reliability of emigration data. Estimations on numbers of emigrations to the specific directions can be drawn either by deriving the data that are published in the databases on international statistical bodies (Eurostat, UN Statistical Division) or by cooperation with the statistical institutions of main partner countries in the migration exchange. A special attention should be devoted to highly educated emigrants. These data are not often included in published annual migration statistics, therefore an ad hoc request of data to receiving countries may be needed. 19. More generally, the Republic of Moldova should ensure the production of all basic statistical data on international migration as requested by the UN and EU. The EU data request in the field of international migration should be carefully investigated. A national action plan to reach this objective with identification of the different milestones and expected results should be elaborated for this purpose. Considering the situation of international migration in Moldova some other specific data needs would be included in this action plan. 20. Within such national action plan, we consider the key points to ensure an improvement of the situation are: A closer cooperation of ministries and public administrations involved, including the NBS. An optimal use of all existing data, knowledge and resources in order to reach the target within the shortest possible timing. 21. A closer cooperation between all involved ministries and public administrations means: A co-operation between ministries and public administrations that are the primary data providers from one side and the SE SIRC Registru and the NBS that are the statistical data producers in the field of international migration from another side. A co-operation between two main statistical data producers, the SE SRC Registru and the NBS. 22. Concretely for the first level of co-operation, we recommend : A specific task force for improving the data should be settled by each ministry separately involving the representatives of NBS and the SE SIRC Registru in order to improve the set of tables for SIIAMA. The data requests addressed to ministries and other data providers should be unified in a unique request that would satisfy both SIIAMA and NBS needs. The work of the task forces should include the measures for ensuring the compliance with EU standards, including the application of usual procedures for producing statistical data like quality analysis, defining strict selection criterion etc, revision of the current SIIAMA templates, development of new templates including those needed for the Extended Migration Profile, timely delivery of data and issuance of detailed metadata. 49

50 23. In order to improve the collaboration between the two main data producers that are NBS and the SE SIRC Registru for SIIAMA and the SRP, a permanent task force should organized with representatives of the two institutions. The objectives of that permanent task force should be the following: Integrating the competence on producing statistics from the side of NBS and on IT matters and administrative management of data from the side of SE SIRC Registru. Developing a unified national migration information system in order to meet the common need of data for updating SIIAMA tables and for production of national statistics on international migration by NBS. Producing and updating regularly in a consistent way a complete set of statistical tables for SIIAMA (all tables for dissemination to Ministries and policy makers), for NBS (selected tables for dissemination through NBS website and paper publication for general public) and for answering to international requests (following templates sent by international institutions and considering UN/EU standards). 24. For reaching an efficient collaboration aiming to produce a complete and consistent set of statistical tables as far as IT activity is concerned two possibilities are suggested: A statistical register of population will be developed as mirror copy of the SRP including a basic set of demographic variables and being updated on regular base by transfer of new data from the SRP. Such statistical register of population register under the Law on Personal Data Protection. If that will not allow statistical register to be based on personal data the options would be an anonymized database that contains only a transcript IDNP for the purpose of limited procedures of the processing of data. Such statistical register would allow NBS to produce all tables needed for national data users as well as all tables to be delivered to international institutions (Eurostat and UN). Nevertheless the development of a statistical register would request important additional resources and capacity from the side of NBS that is currently not available Another solution could be the detachment of a statistician from NBS staff to SE SIRC Registru on a permanent base. This could be a concrete solution that can be operationalized within a short time. More generally, as experienced in France, the designation of specialists from NBS that will be detached temporarily or permanently to ministry and public administration collecting the relevant primary data would support greatly the production of statistical data on international migration. The role of that person would be to organize the statistical data collection and to manage the statistical quality according international standards. Another solution could be training of some specialists of the SE SIRC Registru or of the ministry on statistical methods but it would not be sufficient as the statistical work needs specific competence and skills as well as permanent updating the knowledge on new methodologies adopted on the international level in the field of statistics Given that the new Law on the regime for foreigners in the Republic of Moldova leaves undefined a number of key migration notions, the situation should be seen as an opportunity for the competent authorities of establishing migration concepts and definitions to be used in statistics in 50

51 accordance with international recommendations through a separate legal, normative or regulatory document. 26. Considering all above detailed recommendations the decision makers should provide NBS the resources for the capacity building as its role is crucial for improving the data collection in the field of international migration statistics in the line of international requirements and aiming to support efficiently the policy development in Moldova and more specifically the updating of the Migration Profile. Also it should be mentioned that, together with the enhancement of NBS capacities, which is on international level considered as the only national (state) provider of statistics, there also should be taken actions on the state level to improve the quality of primary information submitted by the administrative data providers, in order to ensure the high quality of the primary data and exclude the erroneous interpretation of the data presented in context of international migration statistics. 51

52 Relevant documents European Union (2007), Regulation (EC) N 862/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 July 2007 on Community statistics on migration and international protection and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) N 311/76 on the compilation of statistics on foreign workers. Official Journal of the European Union, , n L 199, pp European Union (2010), Commission Regulation (EU) N 216/2010 of 15 March 2010 implementing Regulation (EC) N 862/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council on Community statistics on migration and international protection, as regards the definitions of categories of the reasons for the residence permits.) Journal Officiel, , n L066, pp. 1-2 European Union (2010), Commission Regulation (EU) No 351/2010, of 23 April 2010 implementing Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council on Community statistics on migration and international protection as regards the definitions of the categories of the groups of country of birth, groups of country of previous usual residence, groups of country of next usual residence and groups of citizenship, (Text with EEA relevance), Official Journal of the European Union , n L104, pp NBS (2009). Regarding the development of the System for Demographic Statistics, Nota Informativa accessible on the NBS website Statistical Commission and UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) (2004). The place of usual residence and other geographic characteristics: national practices in the 2000 round of censuses and comments on the ECE census recommendations, Working Paper No.7, Joint UNECE-Eurostat Work Session on Population Censuses, Geneva, November 2004 Statistics Norway (2010). Similarities and differences between Moldova and Norway regarding the conditions for demographic statistics a discussion paper. Notat 10 February 2010; Support to develop demographic statistics, Notat 23 February United Nations (2001). Principles and Recommendations for a Vital Statistics System, Revision 2, ST/ESA/STAT/SER.M/19/Rev.2, p United Nations (1998). Recommendations on Statistics of International Migration. Revision1. Statistical Papers Series M, No. 58, Rev. 1, p

53 Annex 1 Summary of legislation of European Commission on international migration statistics ( REGULATION (EC) No 862/2007 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 11 July 2007 on Community statistics on migration and international protection and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 311/76 on the compilation of statistics on foreign workers [Official Journal L 199 of ]. Full text: This regulation establishes common rules for the collection of Community statistics on migration by European Union (EU) countries. It concerns statistics relating to immigration * to and emigration * from an EU country, citizenship and country of birth of persons resident in the territories of EU countries, and administrative and judicial procedures relating to migration. Statistics on migration, international protection, illegal immigration and returns EU countries are required to provide Eurostat with statistics on the numbers of: - immigrants moving to their territories; - emigrants moving from their territories; - persons usually resident in their territories; - residence permits issued, including long-term residence permits; - natural persons having acquired national citizenship. EU countries are also required to give the numbers of: - persons applying for international protection; - persons covered by applications under consideration by the national authorities; - applications rejected; - applications granting refugee, subsidiary protection and temporary protection statuses; - unaccompanied minors; - applications and transfers covered by the Dublin II Regulation; - persons selected for resettlement. In addition, EU countries must provide Eurostat with statistics on the numbers of non-eu country nationals who have been refused entry at their external borders and who have been found illegally present in their territories. 53

54 Furthermore, EU countries must provide statistics on the number of administrative or judicial decisions imposing an obligation to leave their territories, as well as on the number of non-eu country nationals who are returned to their countries of origin, countries of transit or other non-eu countries. Provisions common to the different categories The statistics are based on: 2. records of administrative and judicial actions; 3. registers relating to administrative actions and population registers; 4. censuses; 5. sample surveys. As a rule, the statistics are disaggregated by age, sex and nationality. The Commission may adopt other disaggregation s, such as the year in which the residence permit was granted for the first time (statistics on residence permits) or reason for refusal or arrest (statistics on illegal entry and immigration). Commission Regulation (EU) No 351/2010 of 23 April 2010 implementing Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council on Community statistics on migration and international protection as regards the definitions of the categories of the groups of country of birth, groups of country of previous usual residence, groups of country of next usual residence and groups of citizenship [Official Journal L 104 of ]. Full text: To ensure the comparability of statistics from EU countries and to allow the drawing up of reliable EU-wide overviews from these statistics, it is essential that all EU countries define certain categories of groups in the same manner. Consequently, this regulation establishes the categories of groups of: - country of birth; - country of previous usual residence; - country of next usual residence; - country of citizenship. EU countries must transmit data to the Commission according to these groups, as listed in the annex to this regulation. The groups of countries and citizenship are divided into basic groups and additional groups of other non-eu countries and citizenship disaggregated by levels of development. The Commission provides lists of countries and citizenships for each basic and additional group. Commission Regulation (EU) No 216/2010 of 15 March 2010 implementing Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council on Community statistics on migration and 54

55 international protection, as regards the definitions of categories of the reasons for the residence permits [Official Journal L 66 of ]. Full text: To harmonize the collection of statistics by EU countries, this regulation defines in its annex the categories of reasons for issuing residence permits to non-eu country nationals. The list includes categories of reasons relating to: 1. family formation and reunification; 2. education and study; 3. remunerated activities. 55

56 Annex 2 Concepts and definitions: recommended by UN and EU compared to those used in Moldova Concept and definition of usual residence UN and EU recommended definitions : UN recommendations: Country of usual residence is the country in which a person lives, that is to say, the country in which he or she has a place to live where he or she normally spends the daily period of rest. Temporary travel abroad for purposes of recreation (... ) does not change a person's country of usual residence. EU Regulation (EC) No 862/2007: "usual residence" means the place at which a person normally spends the daily period of rest, regardless of temporary absences for purposes of recreation, holiday, visits to friends and relatives, business, medical treatment or religious pilgrimage or, in default, the place of legal or registered residence; Definitions used in Moldova NBS Census: Resident population: number of persons, permanently resident on the given territory, including the persons temporarily absent. Present population refers to the number of persons present at the Census moment, including temporarily resident persons. Persons who were temporary absent but still having permanent residence in Moldova were enumerated according to information given by household members that have some impact on the quality of data on these persons. Comment: term permanent is not defined. Concept and definition of immigrant UN and EU recommended definitions : UN recommendations: An international migrant is defined as any person who changes his or her country of usual residence. Long-term migrant -A person who moves to a country other than that of his or her usual residence for a period of at least a year (12 months), so that the country of destination effectively becomes his or her new country of usual residence. From the perspective of the country of departure the person will be a longterm emigrant and from that of the country of arrival the person will be a long-term immigrant. EU Regulation (EC) No 862/2007: Immigration" means the action by which a person establishes his or her usual residence in the territory of a Member State for a period that is, or is expected to be, of at least 12 months, having previously been usually resident in another Member State or a third country. "Immigrant" means a person undertaking an immigration Definitions used in Moldova Immigrant foreign citizen or person without citizenship who obtains the right for permanent or temporary residence in the Republic of Moldova. Repatriate (the Law on Migration No XV of December 6, 2002, abrogated on 24th December 2010) citizen of the Republic of Moldova and/or the person born in the Republic of Moldova and his descendants, and also the person who previously lived for at least 10 years on the territory of country and has the right to set for permanent residence in the Republic of Moldova according to the law. Repatriation (Law on the Regime of Foreigners in the Republic of Moldova entered into force on 24th December 2010) voluntary return of persons born in the RM and their descendants to the homeland according to law. Comment: term permanent is not defined. 56

57 Concept and definition of emigrant UN and EU recommended definitions : EU Regulation (EC) No 862/2007: Emigration means the action by which a person, having previously been usually resident in the territory of a Member State, ceases to have his or her usual residence in that Member State for a period that is, or is expected to be, of at least 12 months. Emigrant" means a person undertaking an emigration Definitions used in Moldova Emigrant citizen of the Republic of Moldova who leaves abroad for permanent or temporary residence on the territory of another state. Comment: term permanent is not defined. 57

58 Annex 3 The EU request of data and their availability in Moldova Data availability on population with usual residence Request according to EU regulation Number of persons having their usual residence in the country on 1 January (or at the end of the reference year) by country of citizenship, age and sex. Number of persons having their usual residence in the country on 1 January (or at the end of the reference year) by country of birth, age and sex Available in Moldova NBS: Not available on an annual base Census: Population by citizenship, age groups, sex and urban/rural. SIIAMA: Statistical data regarding the number of foreigners who stay in the Republic of Moldova: F4.1. Foreigners who stay in the Republic of Moldova, by sex, age group, and country of citizenship F7. Statistical data regarding the foreigners and stateless persons with temporary residence in the RM, distributed by citizenship and goal of stay. F8. Statistical data regarding the foreigners and stateless persons staying on the territory of RM, distributed by type of issued documents and citizenship SRP disseminates on its website a distribution of the total population by citizenship. NBS: Not available on annual base census data include totals by sex and country of birth. Data availability on international immigrants Request according to EU regulation By citizenship, age and sex By country of birth, age and sex By country of previous usual residence, age and sex Available in Moldova NBS: Social-demographic characteristic of the immigrants (separate data for males, females and children). Distribution of immigrants by citizenship. SIIAMA: F1. Number of invitations (requested, issued, withdrawn) to foreigners for to enter in the Republic of Moldova, by citizenship F2.2.2 Statistical data regarding the repatriated persons by citizenship No data available NBS: Repatriates by countries (by sex and separately data for total number of children and retired persons). SIIAMA: F2.2.1 Statistical data regarding the repatriated persons by country of (arrival) previous residence 58

59 Data availability on international emigrants Request according to EU regulation By age and sex By citizenship By country of next usual residence Available in Moldova SIIAMA: Table F6. Statistical data regarding emigration of RM citizens (with withdrawn residence) for getting settled with permanent residence on the territory of other states, distributed by sex, age groups and country of destination SIIAMA (NEA): Table F5. Statistical data regarding the employment of RM citizens to work abroad based on individual work contracts which were officially registered with the National Employment Agency NBS: Emigrants by country of destination. SIIAMA: Table F6. Statistical data regarding emigration of RM citizens (with withdrawn residence) for getting settled with permanent residence on the territory of other states, distributed by sex, age groups and country of destination Data availability on acquisition of citizenship Request according to EU regulation Number of persons having their usual residence in the territory of the country (Member State)and having acquired during the reference year the citizenship of the country (Member State)and having formerly held the citizenship of another country (Member State or a third country) or having formerly been stateless, by age and sex, and by the former citizenship of the persons concerned and by whether the person was formerly stateless. Available in Moldova No data available 59

60 Data availability on international protection Request according to EU regulation Monthly data on the number of first applications for asylum (flow data): Number of persons having submitted an application for international protection or having been included in such an application as a family member during the reference period by age and sex, and by the citizenship of the persons concerned Number of pending applications on the beginning of every month (stock data): Number of persons who are the subject of applications for international protection under consideration by the responsible national authority at the end of the reference period by age and sex, and by the citizenship of the persons concerned Available in Moldova In Moldova the statistical data on asylum seekers and refugees are published by the NBS. Disaggregation is available by country of origin, sex and age group. These data represent the total stock of concerned persons in the country at 1 January where no distinction is made between asylum seekers and refugees. Data on new asylum applications received during a year and annual number of decisions made on applications are not available. Monthly data on the number of asylum applications that have been withdrawn (flow data): Number of applications for international protection having been withdrawn during the reference period. by age and sex, and by the citizenship of the persons concerned. Data availability on prevention of illegal entry and stay Request according to EU regulation Annual number of foreign citizens (third-country nationals) refused entry to the country s (Member State s) territory at the external border by grounds for refusal, the nationality (citizenship) of the persons refused and the type of border (land, air or sea) at which they were refused entry. Annual number of foreign citizens (third-country nationals) found to be illegally present in the country s (Member State s) territory under national laws relating to immigration by age and sex, and by citizenship of the persons concerned Available in Moldova The following tables are available as SIIAMA reports: Table 4.3. Statistical data regarding the number of expulsion decisions issued by the courts regarding foreigners and stateless persons. Table 4.4. Statistical data regarding the number of decision to reduce the period of stay, issued by the police bodies in regards to foreigners and stateless persons. Table 4.5. Statistical data regarding the number of violations of the stay rules committed by foreigners and stateless persons on the territory of the RM. 60

61 Data availability on residence permits Request according to EU regulation Annual number of first residence permit issued (flow data): Number of permits issued during the reference period whereby the person is being granted permission to reside for the first time, by citizenship, by the reason for the permit being issued and by the length of validity of the permit. Total number of valid residence permit on 31 December of each year (stock data): Number of valid permits at the end of the reference period (number of permits issued, not withdrawn and not expired), by citizenship, by the reason for the issue of the permit and by the length of validity of the permit; In addition the number of long-term residents (European Council Directive 2003/109/EC) at the same date has to be provided, by citizenship. Available in Moldova The following tables on invitations are available as SIIAMA reports: F1.1. Statistical data regarding the number of requests for invitations issued to foreigners to enter the Republic of Moldova, by citizenship and goal of trip. F1.2. Statistical data regarding the foreigners who obtained invitations to enter the Republic of Moldova by citizenship, sex, and age groups. F1.3. Statistical data regarding the number of requests for invitation issued, withdrawn, rejected to foreigners and stateless persons, by citizenship. Data availability on remittances Request according to EU regulation Starting from 2009 the EU introduced a new statistical survey under Balance of Payments Statistics. This survey collects data on workers remittances recorded by the responsible authorities. Unfortunately there is no link between these data and those on international migration. Available in Moldova In Moldova information on remittances is collected within the HBS as being a part of household income. Data on the total amount of remittances are published by the NBS in the different tables under the category of other income. HBS results are published in an annual publication Aspects of the Living- Standard of the Population containing detailed information on income, expenditure, housing conditions, household food consumption, availability of durable goods etc. Data availability on migration in EU social surveys Request according to EU Country of birth should be asked in all EU social surveys (Census, EU SILC, LFS, HBS, HIS and TUS) Available in Moldova NBS has introduced the question on the country of birth in the Census 2004, LFS and HBS 61

62 Country of citizenship should be asked in all EU social surveys (Census, EU SILC, LFS, HBS, HIS and TUS) NBS has introduced the question on the country of birth in the Census 2004, LFS and HBS Data availability on emigrant stock Request according to EU regulation No specific recommendations Available in Moldova Several data sources allow estimating the number of Moldovan citizens living/working abroad. In addition socio-economic and demographic characteristics of these persons are also available. NBS asks in the 2004 census a question to identify Persons who were temporary absent but still having permanent residence in Moldova. The available data is disaggregated by sex and age, by reason and duration of absence, by country of current location, by marital status, by education and by place of permanent residence in Moldova. LFS collects the same information through the question on household members aged 15 years and over who are working or looking for work abroad. HBS collects data on absent household members. SIIAMA Tables 3.1 and 3.2 propose based on border crossing a cumulated number of Moldovan citizens who left the country by sex and age group either by municipality of residence in Moldova (Table F 3.1) and by duration of absence (Table F 3.2). 62