Moving Europe: EU research on migration and policy needs

Demography, migration, integration and social cohesion are key topics for the present and the future of the European Union. As indicated in the recent Commission Communication
‘A common immigration policy for Europe’: ‘Immigration into the EU is a reality and there are no reasons to believe that immigration flows will decrease’.

Research in relation to migration issues is an integral part of the European Seventh Research Framework Programme, theme Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities. SSH aims to develop new knowledge, tools, indicators and databases to support European policies facing current socio-economic challenges, in particular for the labour market, social welfare, social cohesion and the fight against various forms of discrimination.

Since the beginning of the Fourth Research Framework Programme up to now, the European Commission selected and co-funded around 50 research projects that directly address the issue of migration. This report presents a brief description of the projects in the area of migration and integration of migrants funded in the last five years, their main findings and relevance for policy-making. These collaborative projects involve a large number of research
teams across Europe. They have produced important insights for policy formulation and have laid the foundations for significant research cooperation across Europe in this field.