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Evidence-based policies to monitor and manage migration flows require accurate data. Data collection on international migration flow statistics is based on a range of data sources and measures. Discrepancies in reported migration flow data are apparent when comparing flow statistics from receiving countries on the number of arriving migrants by their country of origin with statistics from sending countries on the number of departing migrants by their country of destination. In recent decades the relative incompleteness and non-comparability in reported migration statistics have motivated a number of initiatives to improve data in European countries. In this paper we illustrate graphically the discrepancies between sending and receiving migration flow statistics provided to Eurostat by European countries. We find a reduction of the discrepancies between receiving and sending migration flow data after the implementation of regulations to improve the availability and comparability of migration data.

In Brazil – a developing country and one that in its last census in 2010 presented a number of five-year interstate migrations of approximately 4.6 million people – the study of internal migration is a complex exercise given the size and diversity of the country. We adapted the chord diagram plot to visualize the bilateral interstate migration flows in Brazil over a five-year period of 2005–10, and the migration stocks in Brazil in 2010. The bilateral migration flows highlight some recent trends of interstate migration (observed in recent decades), in turn different from cumulative flows over a long period (migration stocks). Brazilian internal migration in the new millennium seems to be marked by the inability of destination areas to absorb migrants over long periods, by the return migration to areas of origin and by the emergence of new areas of retention of migrants.

In comparison with other developed nations, there is a relative lack of analyses on internal migration flow in South Korea. During the last 50 years, the country has witnessed distinct changes in both the levels and patterns of internal migration. Traditionally, the faster developing north-west administrative units (Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi regions) have accounted for the majority of in-migration. However, since 2011, internal migration in Korea has become more diffuse, with migrants moving to a greater variety of regions. We visualize these changes using chord diagram plots.