The year 2012 has come to a close. It has been a really exciting year for me and my team, most importantly, because we witnessed the official launch of our Migration Policy Centre (MPC) in June. I am happy to note that since then, our research centre has become a point of reference for scholars and policymakers trying to understand the migratory movements affecting Europe, its neighbourhood and other parts of the world. Working in close cooperation with the European Commission, our aim is to provide evidence and analyses to help the EU and its Member states to design and monitor policies on migration and asylum matters. Building on the experience and knowledge accumulated by the CARIM observatories of migration in the Middle East and North Africa, in the Eastern neighbourhood of the EU and in India, the MPC focus has been on the external dimension of international migration, looking at the countries of origin of migrants.

Our focus this year has been on two major developments profoundly affecting migration: the economic crisis in Europe and the radical political changes unfolding in the Arab world. For the former issue, MPC has concentrated on understanding the impact of immigration on welfare systems, employment and innovation. MPC’s preliminary results demonstrate, once again, that migration can be seen both as a problem and a solution. In particular, the common views that immigration increases unemployment of natives and puts a strain on welfare state systems are not clearly confirmed by facts. On the other hand, MPC’s research has highlighted that migrants may contribute to innovation and competitiveness and, thereby, may help Europe to recover from the crisis.

For the second issue, MPC’s research has investigated the effects of Arab revolutions and uprisings on migratory and refugee movements. The events unfolding in the EU’s southern neighbourhood have brought considerable challenges – the latest being the growing flows of internally displaced persons in, and refugees from, Syria that must not be left unaddressed. However, these events have also provided historical opportunities for the citizens of the Arab countries and for Europe to rethink the linkages between migration and development.

Complementing these core research topics, MPC’s other projects, namely CARIM-East, CARIM-India, Know Reset and the ACP Observatory on Migration, have all made significant progress covering a wide scope of issues in various regions across the globe – from the EU’s Eastern Neighbourhood to the Indian subcontinent.

I would like to voice my appreciation for all the significant and valuable work that MPC’s vibrant team of 21 people based in Florence and scientific network of over 100 correspondents based abroad have conducted over the past year. Finally, on behalf of the MPC team, I wish you all the best for this festive season and hope that the coming year brings peace and happiness for your family and loved ones.

Sincerely,

Philippe Fargues, Director of the Migration Policy Centre

The CARIM-East project (Consortium for Applied Research on International Migration-East) is the first migration observatory focusing on the Eastern Neighbourhood of the EU. During the past year, the project team has focused on building up the database of demographic-economic, socio-political and legal materials in the field of migration and asylum in the EU’s Eastern Neighbourhood. Read more...

Exchange Grants for Research at the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (PFUR)
The MPC is currently offering grants to EUI members to conduct research in the Russian Federation. The exchange programme aims at fostering common understanding of migration phenomena in three migration systems: EU – Mediterranean; EU – post-Soviet space; and Russian Federation – CIS countries. This exchange is being organised within the framework of the IRSES exchange programme (FP7 Marie-Curie) “The comparative analysis of the economic aspects of international migration: EU, Mediterranean, and CIS” (MIGMEDCIS). For more details, click here.

The CARIM-East project is co-financed by the European Union

The CARIM-India project (Consortium for Applied Research on International Migration-India), currently in its second year, has produced a series of publications and country reports covering a variety of significant topics including Indian student mobility to the EU, Indian investment in Eastern Europe and short-term visa requirements for Indian nationals in the EU. Read more...

The CARIM-India project is co-financed by the European Union

In the framework of the ACP Observatory on Migration, the MPC successfully supervised the conduction two research studies in 2012: one on the Internal Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Haiti in the aftermath of the January 2010 earthquake, and the second on the intra-regional labour migration within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

For the former study, the BRIDES (Bureau de Recherche en Informatique et en Développement Economique et Social), a leading Haitian company specializing in social and economic surveys, was selected to conduct a survey among 630 households equally distributed among three groups: IDPs in the camps, IDPs recently relocated, and non IDPs. The MPC team organized a coordination mission in Haiti in February to finalize the methodology of the survey, and the BRIDES executed the survey in April 2012. The analyses of the survey’s results are available in the final report, written by the BRIDES and edited by the MPC, which will soon be available on-line. Read more...

The MPC is a member of the ACP Observatory on Migration, led by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and financed by the European Commission.

KNOW RESET’s objective is to construct the knowledge-base necessary for good policy-making in the domain of refugee resettlement in the EU and its member states.

In the pursuit of the above objective, the Know Reset website has been created over the past year to offer easy and clear access to key information on resettlement in the EU and also to publish further comparative and critical analysis. The website is a unique tool in the field of resettlement since it is the first website mapping EU’s involvement in refugee resettlement. It focuses on resettlement in the EU and covers the 27 EU Member States involved in resettlement in one form or another, and to various degrees. It covers the great diversity in terms of commitment towards resettlement in the EU and shows a series of recent evolutions in that domain. Read more...

The Know Reset project is co-financed by the European Union.

The Launching Event of the Migration Policy Centre

The Migration Policy Centre (MPC) was officially launched on 25-26th June 2012, in the presence of EU Commissioner of Home Affairs, Cecilia Malmström. The event hosted two panel discussions: one on employment crisis in the EU and its impact on EU’s immigration policies and the other on the implications of the Arab Spring for EU policymaking on migration. In addition, there were four debates on highly pertinent migration issues such as migration policies for economic recovery, framing ethnicity in migration statistics and its pros and cons, migration trends in post-Western world; and forced migration and the international community. Read more...

A Consultation between the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, Mr François Crépeau, Civil Society and Academia

The UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Mr. François Crépeau, conducted a consultation with the representatives of the civil society and academia on the 3rd of October 2012 at the European University Institute (EUI), Florence, Italy. The consultation, co-organized by the MPC and the Open Society Foundations (OSF), evaluated the progress made, as well as the obstacles and challenges which remain, in protecting and promoting the rights of migrants in Italy and, more broadly, in the Euro-Mediterranean region.

Organised with the support of the Open Society Foundations

MPC Workshop: Understanding Migration, Integration and Cultural Policy in Europe

The workshop, held on the 10th December, sought to contribute to the development of a framework for the formulation of an appropriate cultural policy for European member states that is sensitive to the cultural and linguistic diversity of its peoples.

JOB OPPORTUNITIES

Migration Policy Centre is currently looking for two Researchers to bring forward its research agenda:

• Researcher with PhD in economics
• Researcher with a PhD in social science

After initial period of 1 year, there is a possibility to prolong the stay for another year