The lack of reliable data poses key challenges for migration research. There are a few widely recognised agencies supplying migration related data and statistics on an international level. Among them, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) has extensive statistical recordings of intra-OECD member states migration flows and data between OECD members and other countries. Eurostat is the official statistical supplier for the European Union and its database is used by European bodies and international institutions. United Nations System agencies and other international organisations also provide specific categories of migration data, for example the International Labour Migration Statistics of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). National governments and statistical bureaus are good sources for searching national migration data, in terms of the entry and exit records, work permits and visas statistics etc.
As in most cases, migration statistics are generated on the national level. There have been well-documented problems in the literature with using cross-national datasets on international migration (Salt et al. 1994, Singleton 1999). Singleton (1999) points on the issue of ‘harmonised (data) tabulations’ in European migration statistics, resulting from the fact which Eurostat’s migration database consists of national data supplied by the member states (national statistical institutes and ministries), with more than 60 different legislative, administrative and data collection systems across the European Union. The core problem lies within the very definition of migrants. According to the United Nations, a migrant is a person who lives in a country other than his or her origin for one year or more, thus most international students will qualify if they are in a degree programme (usually lasting more than a year) except exchange programmes or other shorter studies. However, many governments give little consideration to international standards. For example, and Salt et al. (1994) and Singleton (1999) have repeatedly pointed out the problems with terminology in statistical data collection and recording, i.e. different countries have different definitions for different types of legal and illegal migrants. On the international level, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)’s World Education Report is considered as the main source for higher education and migration of students. The OECD also publishes important student movement data in their annual SOPEMI report – Trends in International Migration as well as their education statistics.
Careful and appropriate selection of general and student specific migration data is therefore essential in recognition of the limitation and reliability problems of migration data as discussed above. Only carefully selected available data are said to
permit the identification of indicators of change that may be used to inform research aims (Singleton 1999). Taking this recommendation into account, this doctoral research has undertaken thorough and extensive data review and processing which includes combining, comparing and evaluating different secondary statistical sources while attempting to make aware raise awareness of their differences and incompatibility in defining and collecting data as different sources have their advantages and disadvantages. In the context of this research, the following secondary data sources were consulted:
Major sources of references on the international level on student migration in the global context:
OECD: SOPEMI, Statistical Database (Education section)
IOM: World Migration Report
Eurostat: Database
UNESCO: World Education Report, UNESCO Institute for Statistics
World Bank, ILO and other international organisations
On the National Level:
China: Ministry of Education (Annual Education Report), National Statistical Bureau (China Statistical Year Report), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (return migration and students abroad)
France: Ministère de l'Éducation Nationale, de l'Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche (Les étudiants étrangers en France), Office de migrations internationalises (OMI), Ministère des Affaires Étrangères, Edu France (Campus France)
For comparative purpose, other national (international) statistical sources are accessed from various governmental or/ educational agencies for research background:
Australia: IDP Education, Australian Education International
Canada: Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE)
The Netherlands: NUFFIC - the Netherlands Organisation for International Cooperation in Higher Education, Netherlands Education Support Office (NESO)
New Zealand: Ministry of Education
United Kingdom: British Council
United States: Institute of International Education (IIE)
Nowadays it is almost impossible to miss migration related news on TV, radio, internet and in printed media. At the same time the media discourse plays a role in shaping perception and self-perception of migrants and host societies alike. For that reason, the author also investigated varies different media coverage on Chinese student migration and general migration to Europe, the politics and analysis on return migration, as well as topics related to urban development and to the cities of Shanghai and Paris.
Data collection and analysis in this section addresses the contextual research aims and gives a picture of today’s student migration in general and a holistic picture of Chinese student migration to Europe and particularly to France. And at the same time data and news are assessed through cross-comparison for their reliability and take considerations of their political viewpoint is taken into consideration to avoid bias in reporting. In the data collection period for this research project, data from the OECD and national governments of France and China the main secondary resources provider. However, during the course of gathering data, there was only very limited information on international student migration available. To make it even more complicated, the available statistics vary from one source to another. For instance, there is only very limited statistics on foreign students in France. Only two annual data on Chinese students who are enrolled in tertiary education in France can be found in the period 2003-2004. The data of the French Ministry of Education is higher than the OECD figure for the year 2003 (as shown in Table 2), while the data for 2004 is similar.
Table 2: Comparison between the databases of the OECD and the French Ministry of Education on the Number of Chinese Students in Tertiary Education in France
Year / Organisation OECD French Ministry of
Education
2003 10665 8773
2004 11514 11499
(Sources: website databases of OECD (2007), French Ministry of Education (2007))
Unfortunately it was not possible to cross check with Chinese statistics, because there is no available data on the destination country of student migration. There are two Chinese sources on outgoing student migration, one from the Chinese Ministry of Education and one from the Chinese National Statistical Bureau. Comparing to European data, the Chinese data from both agencies are almost identical, suggesting that they may come from the same source.
On the website of the Ministry of Education8
, it regards is said that the statistics collection of Chinese students abroad is a ‘key element of the Ministry’s work and management on Chinese students going abroad’. It also specifies its data collection method:
‘The data is based on the statistics from the Chinese Embassies and Consulates in 109 countries, and (information) from the main destination countries’ diplomatic missions in China, the embarkation card9 statistics from the Bureau of Entry and Exit - Ministry of Public Security, the Departments of Education and Human Resources of key provinces, Chinese organisations on overseas education, relevant Ministries, data from centrally managed Higher Education Institutes in China as well as from statistical resources from both other domestic and foreign organisations.’
(MoE 2008)
8 Ministry of Educations: http://www.moe.edu.cn/english/ 9
The Embarkation Card is an immigration exit card that Chinese citizens should fill in when he/she goes abroad.
Since the number of Chinese students abroad is only divided by continents, and it does not differentiate the educational level of the students (but only by the financial situations – self, government, public, private financed) there is no data for each individual country. With regards to return migration, there is no data available at all on Chinese students except for some media survey based on intention of return by Chinese students abroad. It seems data are only recorded for incoming migration in Europe; there is no country or (migration) category specific statistics for return migration. Therefore the only data available are from the Chinese Ministry of Education, unfortunately it does disclose details where (which country) is the student return migration coming from.