Abstract

Europe is a home to over 40 different national statistical regimes. The efforts to harmonize statistics on migration on the continent have been numerous but also only partially successful. This chapter discusses the challenges of quantitative study of migration in Europe, and weights various traditions and approaches to data collection. It also discusses the pros and cons of aggregated data sets available at the international level. It traces the pan-European efforts to harmonize definitions and concepts behind migration data. It also shows European particularities that make it unique and different from the Northern American experience.