Over the last twenty years, researchers have undertaken systematic comparison of migration policy by creating sets of policy indicators/indexes at the national level. These indicators are designed to analyse the differences and trends in migration policy and then be used by the research community to assess the determinants and effects of policy. This article aims to assess the comprehensiveness of current migration policy indicators by analysing their thematic, geographical and temporal coverage as a way of understanding how migration policy has been conceptualised and measured in quantitative migration research. Our analysis of the 67 existing indexes shows that they disproportionally focus on immigration policy, mainly admission and citizenship, in OECD and particularly Western European countries, with limited opportunities for longitudinal analysis of policy change. These findings reveal that migration policy has been largely conceptualised in indexes as a contemporary phenomenon, concerning mainly Western countries that have become major destination countries.

中文翻译：

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超越移民：从西方转向全球移民政策指数

在过去的二十年里，研究人员通过在国家层面创建一套政策指标/指数，对移民政策进行了系统的比较。这些指标旨在分析移民政策的差异和趋势，然后被研究界用来评估政策的决定因素和影响。本文旨在通过分析它们的主题、地理和时间覆盖范围来评估当前移民政策指标的全面性，以此作为理解在定量移民研究中如何概念化和衡量移民政策的一种方式。我们对 67 个现有指数的分析表明，它们不成比例地关注经合组织特别是西欧国家的移民政策，主要是入学和公民身份，对政策变化进行纵向分析的机会有限。这些调查结果表明，移民政策在很大程度上已在指数中被概念化为一种当代现象，主要涉及已成为主要目的地国的西方国家。