“Without data, there is no visibility,” explains Ramon Sanahuja, Policy Technician at the Intercultural and Religious Pluralism Department of the Municipality of Barcelona. In his view, what is not measured often does not exist in the eyes of public administrations, and without recognition, it will neither be prioritised nor integrated into policy development processes.
Without measuring diversity and migration patterns, it is impossible to identify barriers in access, discrimination in public services, or gaps in policy reach. Beyond basic migration status, Barcelona collects information that includes nationality, country of birth, parental origin, ethnicity, language, and religion.
Why collecting data on migrants and refugees is essential
Sanahuja emphasises that collecting this data is essential to understand social change in cities, evaluate how services function and who they reach, identify and address discrimination, and explore intersectionality, examining how different social factors interact.
Dave Garratt, Director at MigrationWork, adds that political priorities are often defined by the indicators used to measure public policies. Data is vital for planning, allocating resources, designing effective services, and supporting evidence-based policy change.
Examples from across Europe demonstrate the impact of thoughtful data collection. Vienna’s Integration and Diversity Monitor incorporates language as a key variable, while Barcelona’s Observatory of Immigration uses data to understand social change.
In Finland, the city of Vantaa collects language data to improve access to essential services in the absence of ethnicity data, which is illegal. Bologna has developed a gender map to analyse social fragility and caregiving burdens, and in Ghent, authorities define migrant backgrounds through nationality and parental origin, sometimes supplemented by self-identified ethnicity.
When collected well, data allows services to be tailored to actual needs, improving outcomes while minimising waste. It also facilitates coordination across departments and involves multiple stakeholders, including service providers, planners, researchers, technical staff, communities, and the migrants themselves.
Data collection to improve social services
Sanahuja believes that producing indicators on diversity encourages reflection and helps prevent discrimination. Concrete examples illustrate the transformative power of data in municipal policy.
Without data, there is no visibility.
In Barcelona, only 1.8 per cent of municipal employees were born abroad, despite 21.8 per cent of the local population being eligible for these positions. Sports centres in Nou Barris revealed participation gaps of up to 28 per cent among foreign nationals living in their vicinity.
Similarly, in Ghent, 34 per cent of residents have a migrant background, but only 17.75 per cent of civil servants do. In response, the city set a policy goal of ensuring that 30 per cent of recruits come from this population.
“Data is not neutral,” warns Giulia Sudano, co-founder and president of Period Think Tank, citing the principles of ‘Data Feminism’. Data reflects societal priorities, norms, and biases, and it is essential to approach it critically.
Period Think Tank works with municipalities to request and value intersectional data, supporting policy measures aimed at reducing inequalities and integrating gender considerations into planning and budgeting processes. By disaggregating data by gender and other relevant factors, municipalities can evaluate the impact of public policies and build a more equitable society.
Intersectional data helps identify barriers in communication, access, affordability, and inclusion, guiding targeted interventions. Such insights ensure that public services genuinely meet the needs of all populations, fostering social cohesion and improving outcomes for diverse communities.
Data is not neutral.
In Barcelona, the Institut Metròpoli (a consortium between public administrations and universities) conducts applied urban research to improve public policies. The municipality has tasked the consortium with launching an Observatory to ensure up-to-date data to guide the City Council’s social policies, create a shared narrative about migration among the municipal departments, and improve data collection and the usability of administrative records for research purposes.
“Administrative records are not designed to generate knowledge,” says Albert Sales Campos, Head of Social Rights and Public Policy at the Institut Metròpoli. “It is necessary to establish communication channels with data producers to clarify interpretations.” He adds that exploiting administrative records opens the possibility of initiating processes to improve data collection.
In its first report, the observatory shares data on demography and population, analyses poverty and social exclusion in the city and inequalities in the labour market. Also, it explores the relationships between migrant families and individuals and municipal services. The observatory takes the information from databases from surveys, municipal social services, official statistics and regional data.
What data should be collected?
Collecting data on migrants is a long-term endeavour that requires coordination, leadership, clear parameters, adequate budgets, and regular feedback mechanisms.
Garratt stresses the importance of involving service providers, the IT department, planners, and community representatives in every stage of the process. “The information collected should encompass basic demographics, housing, health, life indicators,” he says. “What’s going on for them: their educational achievements, their health indicators, and short, medium and long-term aspirations and feelings,” Garratt explains. “We’re moving from more quantitative data numbers to qualitative data.”
We're moving from more quantitative data numbers to qualitative data.
Garratt also mentions the importance of following a code of practice to guarantee ethical and responsible research. Data collection should be independent and neutral, driven by legitimate purposes, and voluntary consent must be obtained wherever possible. Confidentiality must be protected, discrimination avoided, and migrants and host communities included as active partners throughout the research process. Gender and child-sensitive approaches should be embedded in all stages, from planning to dissemination.
In Nuremberg, every person who stays in the city longer than three months needs to register with the municipality. Detailed and protected data allows local authorities to answer practical questions about language needs for employees or school planning for new arrivals, such as Ukrainians. “Who is going to be in a nursing home in 20 years? What languages should employees speak? What language skills should be looked into further?” explains Juliane Schapper, Scientific Associate, Office of Urban Research and Statistics for Nuremberg. “These kinds of questions can all be answered” with data.
Milan’s Observatory on Reception and Integration centralises demographic, reception, and inclusion data, ensuring quality, reliability, and sharing across departments. Milano Welcome Centre is the one-stop shop set up as the starting point of the data collection process. “Its main objectives,” explains Giulia Torti, Project Management Expert for Milan’s system of reception and integration , “are promoting a data-driven approach to welfare policies, building a centralised system to ensure the quality and reliability of data supporting the operation, coordination, and governance of the reception system in the city, and fostering exchange, networking, and the development of new projects based on data and trends—for example, identifying new funding opportunities.”
The Observatory also monitors pathways and activities, including education, language skills, health services, and social integration.
Who is going to be in a nursing home in 20 years? What languages should employees speak? These questions can be answered [with data].
For Eleonora Guidi, Expert of the Observatory and Senior Project Coordinator at Amapola, a non-profit organisation that provides research, technical assistance and capacity-building to public and private bodies in Milan, “the collection of data is an ongoing and dynamic process. This means, ”she says, “that sometimes we need to change indicators, the number or the variables we’re monitoring as the phenomena or the context are changing. We need to be flexible and adaptable even in the data collection process.”
A lesson learnt from the data collection process shared by Guidi is to adopt a collaborative approach to define and negotiate indicators and tools. This means that the process is built in co-design to get buy-in from data producers. They meet to agree on the data to collect, the indicators and their definition.
While challenges remain, such as administrative workload and discrepancies between intended and actual data collection, the observatory demonstrates the benefits of sustained engagement, collaborative indicator definition, and targeted communication of findings.
Ensuring GDPR compliance
Taehohn Lee from the International Organization for Migration highlights the importance of understanding the legal framework of GDPR before collecting or sharing data.
Municipalities, he says, must assess their legal status, the purpose of data collection, and whether the collected information is necessary and proportionate. Only data that is adequate, relevant, and minimal should be gathered, and migrants should be considered vulnerable subjects due to the imbalance of power that may render consent invalid.
Public interest and legal obligation are the primary legal bases for municipal data collection. Data protection should be embedded throughout the entire management process, including anonymisation, encryption, and clear responsibilities for handling information.
Sometimes we need to change indicators, the number or the variables we’re monitoring as the phenomena or the context is changing.
Dortmund’s MigraDo service centre is a one-stop shop that demonstrates how GDPR-compliant systems can be used effectively. The city collects, anonymises, and shares data internally for governance and external reporting, addressing challenges such as fragmented systems, staff uncertainty, and siloed data through cross-departmental coordination, workshops, and streamlined workflows.
Staff receive regular training to maintain awareness and accountability, and they learn about the legal requirements when handling data. “This legal clarity is extremely important for us because it gives our colleagues confidence and what they are allowed to do and what they are not allowed to do,” says Joëlle Shammann, Procurement and Data Protection Officer at MigraDo.
GDPR compliance, rather than being a barrier, can be an opportunity for municipalities to manage data responsibly, protect vulnerable populations, and utilise information to improve services and enhance service delivery, informing policy-making.
Data on migrants and refugees is far more than a collection of statistics. When gathered ethically, disaggregated thoughtfully, and applied strategically, it becomes a powerful tool for inclusion, equity, and better governance.
Across Europe, cities are showing that responsible, intersectional, and GDPR-compliant data collection enables better understanding of social change, improves public services, prevents discrimination, and ensures policies truly reach everyone.
In this way, data not only measures society but actively shapes a fairer and more inclusive urban future.
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The people mentioned above spoke at the training session ‘Navigating data challenges in local migrant integration’, organised by the EU-funded project CONSOLIDATE. More information here.
