World Bank’s Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD) Thematic Working Group (TWG) on low-skilled labor migration and the International Labour Organization (ILO) jointly sponsored the “KNOMAD Workshop on Measuring Migration Costs for the Low-skilled” in Washington, D.C. from November 16-17, 2015.

The workshop brought together field survey researchers and ILO staff who have been involved in the migration costs surveys in Ethiopia, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines. The country was represented by Carl Rookie Daquio of the Institute for Labor Studies who did a research titled “Survey of Filipino Migrant Worker Returnees from Qatar.”

Discussed were findings from the new migration cost survey dataset and challenges and lessons learned from conducting field surveys, as well as plans and strategies for the new surveys in 2015-2016. Participants also shared practical challenges associated with designing sampling frameworks and conducting Computer-assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) surveys.

The workshop highlighted the importance of collecting migration costs data to identify a global target to reduce recruitment costs and highlight costs that arise during the employment of workers in destination countries. It also pointed out that field surveyors need to document sampling frameworks and survey methods in a detailed manner to better understand the details behind the data.

Most of the participants employed the CAPI method and agreed that it is an efficient survey tool that helps control the quality of interviews, better monitor interviews in the field, and improve efficiency in data collection process.

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