Quantitative Data Collection from Hard-to-Reach, Undocumented Migrants in Belgium and France

The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is a leading humanitarian organization that provides protection, livelihoods, and emergency assistance to displaced populations worldwide. Part of DRC, the Mixed Migration Centre (MMC) is a global leader in independent data collection, research, and policy engagement on mixed migration.

Under the EU-funded REACH OUT project, MMC was in charge of generating evidence on the experiences and perceptions of undocumented migrants in France and Belgium, with a particular focus on Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) programs.

Nurai was commissioned to ensure rigorous, ethical, and community-driven data collection while overcoming recruitment and access challenges. To achieve this, we:

• Recruited skilled research coordinators with deep networks in migrant communities

• Identified, trained, and supervised field enumerators, many of whom had lived experience as migrants themselves

• Deployed structured surveys targeting Afghan, North African (Tunisian, Moroccan, Algerian), and Guinean respondents

• Ensured accessibility by conducting data collection in multiple languages: English, French, Arabic, Dari and Pashto

• Implemented a robust quality assurance process with systematic monitoring, retraining, and adaptive strategies

The data collection effort was completed in 5 months, with a total of 1,002 surveys completed, 500 in Paris and 502 in Brussels. The final dataset was validated and cleaned in collaboration with MMC and it provided them with critical insights into undocumented migrants' migration journeys, access to services, and decision-making around return.