New data posted – household surveys for Burkina Faso, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, and Uganda

We invite you to use open and free access to data collected through the Migration and Remittances Household Surveys conducted for the Africa Migration Project. Please access the household data here. We present the methodological apects and main finidngs of the surveys in our paper, Migration and Remittances Household Surveys: Methodological Issues and New Findings from Sub-Saharan Africa. For information on the report “Leveraging Migration for Africa: Remittances, Skills, and Investments” please visit our website.

As part of the Africa Migration Project, we conducted six Migration and Remittances Household Surveys in Burkina Faso, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, and Uganda. The surveys used a standardized methodology developed by the Migration and Remittances Unit of the World Bank and were conducted by primarily country-based researchers and institutions during 2009 and 2010.

The collection of migration and remittance data through these surveys addresses serious gaps in knowledge of the motives for migration, the estimated remittances sent through formal and informal channels, the remittances sent by former and nonformer household members (that is, individuals who regularly send remittances but have not been part of the current household), and return migration. Collectively, these surveys provide unique data and a new research methodology for collecting information on migration and remittances in Sub-Saharan Africa.

A distinctive feature of these surveys is that they allow for comparison across countries. Since the surveys were implemented during the same period, they provide us with a good picture of regional migration and remittances, at the household level, in the six countries surveyed.