Data on Kosovo Migration
The data on migration from Kosovo are in seven files. All of the files are comma-delimited ASCII. The fields in each file are described below. For more information, see Policy or Panic, section A1, pp. 36-37.
If you use these data, please cite them with the following citation, as well as this note:
“These are convenience sample data, and as such they are not a statistically representative sample of events in this conflict. These data do not support conclusions about patterns, trends, or other substantive comparisons (such as over time, space, ethnicity, age, etc.).”
Ball, Patrick. (2000). AAAS/ Human Rights Data Analysis Group database of migrations in Albania and Kosovo.
Border records
The data keyed from the border records is contained in morina-border.csv. Each of the 19126 records in this file represents a single line in the border records kept by the guards at Morina. The data run from 28 March 1999 until 28 May 1999. Although there were other paper border records, it was impossible to determine the dates on which they had been recorded, and therefore they were not included in this dataset.
Each line in the border records represents a single individual, household or group that passed the border. The fields in this dataset are as follows:
| Field name | Field description |
| bord_id | A unique identifier for this border record. |
| pcode | As in the geographic lists; this is the village and municipality of residence reported to the border guards by the group or individual crossing the border. The value -1000 signifies that this information is missing. |
| exdate | Date crossing the border |
| numpers | Number of people in this party. This variable has an enormous range – in less than 2% of the records, there are more than 100 people tallied in numpers. However, these few records account for approximately 21% of the people who crossed the border. This phenomenon is discussed in Policy or Panic as “overflow;” see pp. 38-41. |
Alternative border counts
Starting on 27 March 1999, the UN High Comission for Refugees issued daily situation reports in which the daily number of people crossing the border were reported. Beginning on 13 April, the Government of Albania’s Emergency Management Group began reporting figures as well. The figures do not always agree with the border data (see Graph A1, p 39 in Policy or Panic for a discussion). When the UN and EMG figures disagree with each other, it seems to be because one counts crossings in slightly different periods than the other. Summed over short periods, the two series tend to agree. The data are in alt_cnts-border.csv.
| Field name | Field description |
| exdate | Date crossing the border |
| uncnt | Number of people crossing the border reported by UNHCR |
| emgcnt | Number of people crossing the border reported by EMG |
Surveys
More information about AAAS’s survey activities in Kosovo is available here.
IPLS/AAAS – Listing
The IPLS/AAAS team registered a sample of 1837 Kosovar Albanian families residing in 18 camps in Albania. The data are in ipls-list.csv.
| Field name | Field description |
| ipls_id | Unique id |
| numpers | Number of people in this household |
| exdate | Date crossing the border |
| pcode | Code of the village or town where they lived in Kosovo |
IPLS/AAAS – Interviews
The IPLS/AAAS team and another team from the University of California-Berkeley interviewed a total of 265 Kosovar Albanian households in camps in Albania and Bosnia; the data are in the file ipls-int.csv.
| Field name | Field description |
| pcode | Code of the village or town where they lived in Kosovo |
| lvdate | Date this household left their homes |
| exdate | Date crossing the border |
| ngrp | Number of people in the group |
| bos | 1=interviewed in Bosnia; 0=interviewed in Albania |
Physicians for Human Rights
In this dataset, there are 671 households that crossed into Albania and 509 more that crossed into Macedonia; these records are found in phr-transit.csv. Only their home municipalities, home leaving dates, and exiting Kosovo dates are of interest to this study. Missing values are represented by empty spaces in the comma-separated records.
| Field name | Field description |
| ngrp | Number of people in the interviewed household |
| lvdate | Date this household left their homes |
| exdate | Date crossing the border |
| mcode | Code of the municipality where they lived in Kosovo |
| id | Unique id |
| int_loc | 1=Albania, 2=Macedonia |
Human Rights Watch
In this dataset, there are 123 people interviewed in AlbaniaOnly their home municipalities, home leaving dates, and exiting Kosovo dates are of interest to this study. Missing values are represented by empty spaces in the comma-separated records. The data are in hrw-transit.csv.
| Field name | Field description |
| ngrp | Number of people in the interviewed household |
| lvdate | Date this household left their homes |
| exdate | Date crossing the border |
| mcode | Code of the municipality where they lived in Kosovo |
Estimates
The final estimates are found in migration-est.csv. Note that the methods used to estimate lvcnt in this file are described in some detail in Appendix A, Policy or Panic.
| Field name | Field description |
| pcode | Code of the village or town in Kosovo |
| lvcnt | Estimated number of people leaving home |
| kSE | Estimated standard error of lvcnt |
| lvdt2 | Two-day period covered by lvcnt |
Last updated: 1 November 2002
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