IOM Holds Workshop on Exploring Innovative Data for Labor Migration Policy

In collaboration with the Big Data for Migration Alliance (BD4M), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Egypt organized a two-day capacity-building workshop and one-day technical studio in Cairo on exploring the potential use of innovative data and tools to inform labor migration policy in Egypt and to complement traditional data sources.

The workshops took place on February 21st -22nd and the studio on February 23rd saw the participation of representatives from Egyptian authorities and was held in close coordination with the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).

In his speech, Mr. Carlos Oliver-Cruz, IOM Egypt’s Chief of Mission said: “With the rapid advancement of new data sources, tools and methods, there is an unprecedented opportunity to address some of the critical knowledge gaps in the field of labour migration research.”

In turn, Marina Manke, Chief of the IOM Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC) explained: "Innovative approaches to data collection and analysis hold great potential for helping governments and private sector fill knowledge gaps to better match the skills of migrant workers with the needs of employers’ and conduct foreign and domestic labor market analysis in Egypt and beyond."

She continued: “The purpose of the BD4M is to bring stakeholders together such as in this event to raise these timely topics and turn recommendations into concrete practices."

The topic of labor migration still poses significant research gaps globally. But with the rapid advancement of technologies and the emergence of new data sources, tools, and methods, there is an unprecedented opportunity to address some of these critical knowledge gaps in this topic, according to IOM Egypt.

The workshop addressed this issue directly by providing Egyptian authorities with the necessary skills to utilize the appropriate methods and respond to policy inquiries responsibly and ethically.

Merely possessing and identifying new technologies and data sources is insufficient to find answers to the pressing questions and to inevitably inform labour market policy. It is imperative that the relevant stakeholders, which inform and shape labor migration policies, are equipped with the necessary skills to handle this data, IOM Egypt noted in a statement.

The workshops took place within the broader framework of the “Towards a Holistic Approach to Labor Migration Governance and Labor Mobility in North Africa” (THAMM) program generously funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF), which aims to facilitate the mobility of people for employment purposes between North African Countries such as Egypt and key destination countries in Europe and beyond.

Established in 2018, the BDM is a joint initiative of IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC), the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC), and the Governance Lab at New York University (The GovLab).