Wikipedia as a Tool for Tracking Mass Migration Flows: Insights from the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

Carolina Coimbra Vieira, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR)
Asli Ebru Sanliturk, MPIDR
Emilio Zagheni, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR)

Tracking and predicting migration flows, especially those arising from unforeseen factors like conflicts and wars, can be challenging. Digital trace data offer an innovative approach to track, predict, and assess real-time changes in migration flows faster than traditional data sources. In this study, we propose a methodology to use Wikipedia data to determine how the number of views on Wikipedia pages about cities change over time due to rising interest, in response to big migration events. As a case study, we focus on recent mass migration events caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Our results show a correlation between the number of views on Ukrainian Wikipedia pages dedicated to European capitals and the number of Ukrainian refugees in European countries. Similarly, we observed a high correlation between the number of views on Ukrainian Wikipedia pages dedicated to Polish cities and the number of Ukrainian refugees in Poland. Our findings reveal opportunities in the use of Wikipedia as a proxy to study and predict mass migration flows.

Keywords: Migrant Populations and Refugees, International Migration, Data and Methods, Big data

See paper.