PhD Studentship: Improving the Quality of International Migration Statistics, UK

June 24, 2010

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Job Description: In order to fully understand the causes and consequences of international movements in Europe, researchers and policy makers need to overcome the limitations of the various data sources, including inconsistencies in availability, definitions and quality. At present, there has been little research on bringing together multiple sources of data to provide better pictures of population movements between countries. This topic of research is particularly important for the United Kingdom, where the main source of numbers on immigration and emigration come from the International Passenger Survey (IPS). Because of its relatively small sample size, the country-to-country migration patterns exhibit irregularities over time and are often not consistent with those reported by other EU Member States. This is especially true for flows between countries with relatively small population sizes, and also for further disaggregation by age and sex. The aim of this PhD project is to investigate methods and alternative sources of data for improving the current state of knowledge about the origins and destinations of international migrants to and from the UK. This work is of great importance for the Office for National Statistics Centre for Demography (ONSCD), who are currently seeking new methods and sources of data to improve their existing data on international migration.

The topic of the PhD corresponds well with the current agenda of ONSCD’s Migration Statistics Improvement Programme, which is seeking methods to incorporate new sources of information on migration to improve future migration statistics. The student will also benefit from recent experiences of two projects that the supervisors, Dr James Raymer and Dr Jakub Bijak, have contributed to: MIMOSA (Migration Modelling for Statistical Analyses, funded by Eurostat, 2006-2009) and IMEM (Integrated Modelling of European Migration, funded by New Opportunities for Research Funding Co-operation in Europe, 2009-2011). The results of this project could also be useful to aid population modelling, such as that occurring as part of the ESRC Centre for Population Change (CPC) at the University of Southampton. Similarly, the student will benefit from the research environments of CPC, the Division of Social Statistics and the Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute, including participation in the regular seminar series and special events on population change and migration. Finally, we plan to have close collaboration with a parallel CASE studentship project in the School of Geography at the University of Leeds entitled ‘Using Administrative Sources to Improve International and Internal Subnational Migration Estimates in the UK’ supervised by Prof John Stillwell and Dr Paul Norman.

We envision a close working relationship with ONSCD, where informal meetings once every two months take place between the student and the key person(s) at ONSCD and formal progress meetings with the student, both supervisors and ONSCD every six months. ONSCD will provide technical advice and access to new sources of available migration data. Note, for some parts of this research, the data may be considered confidential and therefore the student may be required to do some of the work at ONS in Titchfield, which is located about 12 miles from the University of Southampton.

Eligibility: Applicants should have a postgraduate degree in demography or a related social science or quantitative discipline, or equivalent experience. They should also have good computing skills and an interest in migration measurement. ESRC eligibility criteria apply and are set out in Sections 2.13 to 2.16 and Annex 1 of the ESRC ‘Guidance notes for applicants’.

What the award pays: This ESRC award pays all University tuition fees, plus an annual maintenance stipend (£13,590-16,590 plus £750-1000 for research support for the 2010-2011 academic year). Note, the higher stipend amount is dependent upon a successful application for Advanced Quantitative Methods status (see procedure below).

Application Procedure

No separate application form is required to apply for the studentship. Please apply following the steps below:

1. Go to ‘how to apply’
2. Click the button at the bottom of the page marked ‘Apply online here’
3. Check the button marked ‘Research’ (if not already checked)
4. Click the arrow to the right of ‘School’ and select ‘School of Social Sciences’
5. Click the button marked ‘Search for Programme’
6. Select ‘Apply online’ beside the MPhil/PhD in Social Statistics
7. When completing the form, please state in Section 8 (funding) that you wish to be considered for the ESRC / Office for National Statistics CASE PhD +3 Studentship on ‘Improving the Quality of International Migration Statistics in the UK’.
8. Please attach an up to date CV, including a summary of your grades thus far in your degree, and a covering letter. The covering letter should be no more than one side of A4, must clearly state why you think you would be a good candidate for the award, and provide a brief preliminary outline of how you would propose to develop a research design in this topic area.

Finally, make sure to submit the application form for Advanced Quantitative Methods status.

If you have any questions about the application process, contact Mrs Gill Crumplin at G.S.Crumplin@soton.ac.uk.
Further information

Informal inquiries may be made to Dr James Raymer (raymer@soton.ac.uk)

The deadline for applications is 30 July 2010.

Shortlisted candidates will be called for an interview.

The student would be expected to start on 1 October 2010.

Further Scholarship Information

Scholarship Tags: PhD studentship, Statistics, UK