What Influences the Use of Data on Irregular Migration Flows in Public Debates and Policy Making? Findings from Strategic Case Studies.

This working paper explores factors that influence the presence of irregular migration flow data in public debates and policy decision making. Observations from five strategic case studies exploring the data on selected patterns of irregular migration flows in different national contexts are compared: visa applications and overstaying data in Spain, irregular border crossing data in Greece, data documenting irregular migration status change in registration data in the Netherlands, data on the administration of asylum procedures in Germany and data on temporarily admitted migrants who fall out of status due to administrative dysfunction in Canada. As cross case unit of analysis, the multiple case study pursues the question of how selected factors influence the presence and use of irregular migration flow data in public debates and policy decision making. The explorative analysis suggests that – in addition to availability, accessibility, and quality – data expediency is a strong factor influencing the presence and use of irregular migration flow data in public debates and policy decision making.