Hein de Haas, Katharina Natter and Simona Vezzoli

This paper outlines the conceptual and methodological underpinnings of DEMIG POLICY, a new database tracking major changes in migration policies of 45 countries between 1946 and 2013. Besides significantly extending the geographical and historical coverage of existing migration policy databases, DEMIG POLICY attempts to overcome the common ‘receiving country bias’ by also including emigration policies.