QUESTIONNAIRE TO COMMONWEALTH GOVERNMENTS
ON THE
NUMBER, CHARACTERISTICS AND STATUS OF MIGRANTS
IN COMMONWEALTH COUNTRIES
PURPOSE AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
The purpose of this questionnaire is to enable the Secretariat to assemble basic data about the immigrant and emigrant populations of Commonwealth countries and the movement of people between
Commonwealth countries.
It is hoped that the data when compiled will be of assistance. to Commonwealth governments in establishing the general perspective and providing a general point of reference for comparative information on the nature of the migratory movement, the methods of evaluating it and procedures for dealing with it in the various Commonwealth countries. It is also hoped that this information might be helpful to governments in formulating their own policies and techniques (including techniques in the compilation of statistics), and that it may provide a basis for any further more specialised studies which governments might feel would be useful in elaboration of the general picture.
Experience has shown that difficulties can arise in comparative analysis in this field because of the many differing definitions of "migrants" as international travellers both in statistics and for the purpose of legislative and administrative controls. It is for this reason necessary to establish as precisely as possible what definitions and categorisation are being used and how the statistics are compiled.
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A further difficulty is that the range - as well as the depth of the recorded information (statistically and otherwise) about international travellers varies considerably from country to country.
There is a similar variation in the administrative methods for collecting and compiling information. Knowledge of the methods used (which includes knowing which departments of government are responsible
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