By Aafke Brus, Radboud University Nijmegen
August 2014
1. Introduction
IMISCOE was established in 2004 as a Network of Excellence in the field of Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion in Europe. Since then it has developed rapidly into an International Research Network, growing from nineteen founding member institutes in 2004 to 35 member institutes in 2014 and around 500 individual members from all over Europe. IMISCOE has also provided seed funding to numerous research initiatives, which have been at the basis of many international research projects. Furthermore, IMISCOE has established a book series with now over 65 titles, which have become a key reference in the field of migration and integration studies. Also, IMISCOE has been offering various activities in the area of PhD training, including a series of summer- and winter schools.
These activities have, beyond any doubt, contributed significantly to the development of a more interdisciplinary and comparative orientation in migration and integration studies. IMISCOE has been a catalyst of the rapid development of migration and integration studies in Europe. Whereas this field originally had a strong national orientation, comparative research has now become much more widespread, contributing significantly to the theoretical development of the field. Furthermore, from originally a mainly sociological and anthropological field, migration and integration studies at large as well as IMISCOE in particular have become much more interdisciplinary, with contributions from political science, policy sciences, demography, social geography, law, economics, history, and various other disciplines.
This study was written at the occasion of the tenth anniversary of IMISCOE, in April 2014. This was a good time to look into the history network, which is what this paper will do. Not only the history of the network itself, but also its structure, its research and publications will be described. This was done by studying the minutes of the Board of Directors meetings, interviews with key persons involved in the development of IMISCOE, and a survey amongst directors of institutional members as well as individual members.
Table of Contents <<< 1. Introduction >>> 2. Origins and development of IMISCOE