View of This article is a critical analysis of the production of data from international organizations on migration. In specific terms, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) is addressed, due to its relevance in migration governance, and particularly the operational definition missing migrant in the IOM’s Missing Migrants Project (MMP), a widely disseminated and used database that is constantly updated but whose conception of the disappearance of people is problematic because 1) it makes the disappearance itself invisible, 2) it doesn’t acknowledge the struggles and achievements of the groups searching for missing people and 3) it re-victimizes family members and search groups.

Return to Article Details This article is a critical analysis of the production of data from international organizations on migration. In specific terms, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) is addressed, due to its relevance in migration governance, and particularly the operational definition missing migrant in the IOM’s Missing Migrants Project (MMP), a widely disseminated and used database that is constantly updated but whose conception of the disappearance of people is problematic because 1) it makes the disappearance itself invisible, 2) it doesn’t acknowledge the struggles and achievements of the groups searching for missing people and 3) it re-victimizes family members and search groups. Download Download PDF