IOM Minsk Supports the Initiative of Belstat on External Labour Migration Research

IOM Minsk supports the Belstats’ proposal for the implementation of the nationwide survey on the outflow of labour force from Belarus and the and on the conduction of the ensuing research. In this regard IOM Minsk convened the meeting dedicated to the above mentioned issues for the representatives of the main interested state partners such as the Belstat, the Ministries of Labour and Economy, the National Bank, the Department for citizenship and migration of the Interior Ministry. The meeting was attended and chaired by IOM’s Thematic Specialist on Labour Migration and Development representing IOM Regional Office in Vienna Mrs. Marina Manke.

Therefore, during the meeting the draft Questionnaire and the Concept for Data Collection on Labour Migration were presented and discussed among all the concerned agencies. Each agency shared its own vision of how the survey should best be conducted and what issues, out of those currently missing, need to be reflected in the questionnaire. The Belstat will consolidate and incorporate all the suggestions and share the updated version of the Questionnaire with all the stakeholders.

IOM believes that external labour migration sphere is the least investigated due to the fact that there’s the lack of statistical data that would allow to estimate the scale of the phenomenon, its geography, socio-demographic portrait of labour migrants, sphere and period of their employment abroad, etc. IOM considers that this data will contribute to the improvement of the national migration policy and for its part expresses its readiness to attract international experts.