The Differences in Migration Data Collection: A Comparison between Croatia and Selected European Countries

Sa？etak Migration is one of the demographic processes that has shaped the modern world most profoundly. It is estimated that the global number of migrants reached 272 million in 2019 and that international migrants make up 3.5% of the world population. These figures reveal that migration shapes the modern world not only in economic terms, through the growth of trade and remittances, but also in terms of culture, gender, ethnicity, and identity. In a world of declining fertility, migration is becoming the main factor in the spatial distribution of the world population. However, migration is still one of the most poorly defined and measured demographic processes, lacking standardised procedures between countries, which prevents international comparability of data. Also, an overarching theory of migration does not exist, and instead we are left with several perspectives. The two main aspects of any definition of migration are (1) a change in place of usual residence, and (2) crossing an established political/administrative border. One term essential for defining migration is the place of usual residence, a place where a person lives or spends most of his/her daily rest. This definition is important since shorter periods of absence from this place do not count as migration (tourist travel, pilgrimages, etc.). The length of absence is the most important condition; the EU defines immigration as establishing a new usual residence that lasts or is expected to last at least 12 months. Another challenge to the definition of migration are the recommendations of the UN on the international migration statistics where there is a distinction between “short-term migrants” (those who reside in the country of immigration for 91 to 365 days), and “long-term migrants” (those who reside in the country of immigration for more than a year). Some countries do not abide by these recommendations, so the time frame for attaining a resident status differs among countries. Also, the manner of producing statistics on migrations differs among countries as well. There are several ways of producing these statistics, most notably by using border crossing data, censuses, surveys, and population registers, the latter being considered the “golden standard” of migration data. The aim of this paper is to compare the ways of collecting data on migrations and the deadlines for registering residence in Croatia and six other European countries, to explain the discrepancy in the number of annual migrants in the data for Croatia and the other countries, from 2013 (the year of Croatia’s accession