Estimates of international migrants leaving Brazil between 1995 and 2000: an application of the intercensal survival method

Abstract

Due to the lack of data on demographic movements in space and time, demographers and scholars of the population have long resorted to indirect methods for measuring net migration. The most recent Brazilian Demographic Censuses contain a considerable amount of data on population movements that can provide direct estimates of migratory flows. In addition, data not directly related to migration,but handled through the application of indirect techniques, provide estimates of net migration. More recently a combination of direct and indirect techniques has made it possible to estimate international migration flows. This question represents a methodological challenge and represents an opportunity to understand important aspects of the dynamics of migration in Brazil. Few studies, however, have dealt with the development and improvement of methods and techniques aimed at estimating analytical categories such as international emigration. The main objective of this paper is therefore to provide estimates of international emigration of Brazilians by sex, age and state during the second half of the 1990s, by applying the Census Survival Ratio Method.