Overall situation of the target group in member states

AuthorBircan, Tuba; Lancker, Anne van; Nicaise, Ides
Pages15-37
Target Group Discussion Paper Children with a Migrant Background
15
Overall situation of the target group in Member States
3.1 Relative size of the target group and overall poverty/social
exclusion situation in the Member States
Availability of data
Data on children with a migrant background can be found or calculated mainly through
data on migrant stocks and flows by age at the global, regional and national levels, from
sources ranging from administrative to expert reports.
Eurostat produces statistics on international migration flows, population stocks of national
and non-national citizens and data relating to the acquisition of citizenship. Data are
collected on an annual basis and are supplied to Eurostat by EU countries’ national
statistical authorities. The data include the total stock of migrants who do not have the
citizenship of the host country and the stock of migrants who are foreign-born, by age
categories. In addition, series of the annual inflow of immigrants in each member state by
age are available as of 2009, as well as the number of unaccompanied minors, pending
asylum cases, asylum decisions made, and cases that have been withdrawn, divided into
five age categories, including less than 14 years and 14-17. Migrants are defined by two
criteria: citizenship and country of birth. There is no information about the country of birth
of parents. Data on yo ung migrants’ ages are broken down into four subcategories: 0-4
(early childhood), 5-9 (late childhood), 10-14 (adolescents) and 15-19 (middle and late
adolescents). Due to the ranges of the age categories, the precise number of children below
the age of 18 is not available in the published data. These figures underestimate the total
number of EU inhabitants with a migrant background because only people born in a non-
EU country are included. Put differently, as far as children are concerned, these figures
only allow us to measure the number of first-generation children with a migrant
background (category 1 in Table 2.1); they exclude second-generation children with a
migrant background i.e. children born in the country from parents born in a non-EU
country (category 3 in Table 2.1, who are included in the FSCG definition). On the other
hand, they include foreign-born people whose parents are not foreign-born (category 2 in
Table 2.1), who are excluded in the FSCG definition. This data source is therefore not
appropriate for estimating the size of the TG.
Census data provided by Eurostat are based on the 2011 Population and Housing Census,
which is a set of harmonised high-quality data from the population, and housing censuses
conducted in the Member States. Migration status is defined by citizenship and the country
of birth (which is defined as the place of usual residence of the mother at the time of birth
or, if not available, the place in which the birth took place). The most recent data are from
2011. Here also, no information is available on the country of birth of parents. This data
source is therefore not suitable either for estimating the size of the TG.
In view of the problem of estimating the size of the TG in official migration statistics, let
us turn to three international surveys: EU-SILC, the LFS and the OECD Programme for
International Student Assessment (PISA).
To start with, it is important to highlight that, like (most) other surveys, these three
sources have (serious) limitations in the coverage of the migrant population. By design,
they target the entire resident population and not specifically migrants. Cover age issues
of survey data arise in the following cases.
Recently arrived migrants: this group of migrants is missing from the sampling
frame, resulting in under-coverage of the actual migrant population.
Non-response of migrant population: a significant disadvantage of surveys is that a
high percentage of the migrant population does not answer them. This may be due
to language difficulties, misunderstanding of the purpose of each survey,
arduousness in communicating with the interviewer, and fear on behalf of migrants
of a possible negative impact on their authorisation to remain in the country after
participating in the survey.
Target Group Discussion Paper Children with a Migrant Background
16
Sample size: sample surveys cannot fully capture the characteristics of migrants in
EU countries with low migrant populations.
Furthermore, these surveys cover only private households. Persons living in
collective households (including institutions) are excluded from the target
population. This may have an impact on the coverage of the migrant population.
The sample of general surveys, such as EU-SILC and LFS, may therefore exclude the most
unstable and vulnerable groups of children with a migrant background and may thus be
biased.
Keeping in mind these limitations, it is possible in EU-SILC and the LFS to develop a proxy
for children who live with at least one parent not born in the EU29.
In PISA (which measures the skills of school pupils aged 15 in mathematics, science and
reading), both the first and second generations of immigrant students are identifiable.
However, this source does not distinguish between EU and non -EU countries of birth, and
considers as foreign-born any person born outside the country of residence. Furthermore,
it focuses only on children aged 15. Using PISA data as an estimate of the total population
of children would imply that we assume an even age distribution, which is not the case. To
be more specific, according to the 2017 Eurostat migration data, the total number of non-
EU-born children aged 5-14 in the EU countries (excluding Germany, which is not available)
is 1,460,480; and almost half of them (627,071) are aged 5-9. When we break down the
numbers per country, the differences become more dramatic, in particular for Bulgaria,
Poland and Romania where almost one third of all children with a migrant background are
below 9 years of age. Although not useful as a way of estimating the size of th e TG,
PISA is nonetheless a valuable source of data for the differentiation between first and
second generations among migrants aged 15, and for assessing the access of the TG to
education.
Furthermore, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) publishes monthly Situation
Reports with detailed information on the number of children with a migrant background
who receive services from UNICEF and/or are affected by displacement. In addition to the
number of migrant children, UNICEF reports also discuss the risks faced by children with a
migrant background, using both primary and secondary quantitative and qualitative data
sources.
Estimating the number of children with a mi grant background is therefore quite complex.
As very well explained on the Migration data portal30, realities on the ground make data
collection and analysis by age, specifically on those aged under 18, extremely challenging.
The portal highlights a number of challenges, including the following.
Incomplete, unreliable or duplicated data. Unaccompanied children or children
who become separated from their guardians or lose them during their journeys may
go undetected (avoiding being registered by authorities); or they may claim to be
older than 18 or accompanied by a guardian (so that they can continue their
journeys and not be taken into custody). Others may not know how old they are or
may claim to be under 18 so that they can access the rights and privileges of being
a child, such as shelter and schooling. There may also be cases of children who
register for asylum in more than one country, who do not register for asylum at all,
or who claim international protection but have not arrived by sea. For instance,
Germany reported that more than 42,000 unaccompanied and separated children
entered the country in 2015, but only 14,439 claimed asylum (European
Commission, 2016).
Different definitions for age categories. The comparison of data on stocks and
flows of children with a migrant background and other age groups is difficult
because countries analyse age and collect data using different definitions.
29 We would like to warmly thank Eurostat LFS colleagues who kindly agreed to carry out a specific exercise
using LFS microdata to estimate the size of the TG.
30 https://migrationdataportal.org/themes/child-migrants.

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