ESF Strategic Workshop: New approaches for researching the determinants of migration processes

While there is a plethora of research on the social, cultural and economic impacts of migration on sending and receiving societies, in comparison there has been less research on the drivers (causes) of migration processes themselves. Migration research is fast-growing and fragmented over numerous disciplines, which makes it difficult to achieve coherence and to build on insights gained. A specific challenge is how to connect and compare migration data collected and analysed on different levels of aggregation. It is difficult to achieve synthesis between micro, meso and macro level theories and quantitative and qualitative research: hence the still limited comprehensive understanding of the multi-level forces driving migration processes.

This workshop will bring together a wide range of senior and mid/early career migration scholars to explore new approaches for researching the determinants of migration. It will focus on how to improve the connection between qualitative and quantitative and micro-, meso- and macro-level research as well as the methodological choices required to achieve this. Discussions will serve to identify gaps in key research areas and strategies to create conceptual bridges between different disciplinary and thematic strands and levels of aggregation.

The workshop is sponsored by the European Science Foundation and has received additional funding from the Oxford Martin School. The outcomes will play a role in the development of a European level research agenda in the area of international migration.

IMI intends to organise a follow-up, empirical results-driven workshop on the determinants of international migration in early 2012.

See also our research project, the Determinants of International Migration (DEMIG).