The importance of evidence‐based research on migration: Historical reflections and current salience
| Published date | 01 October 2021 |
| Author | António Vitorino |
| Date | 01 October 2021 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12915 |
International Migration. 2021;59:269–272.
|
269
wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/imig
Received: 6 Augu st 2021
|
Accepted: 8 Augus t 2021
DOI: 10 .1111/imig .12915
COMMENTARY
The importance of evidence- based research
on migration: Historical reflections and current
salience
António Vitorino
Director General, International Organization for Migration, Geneva, Switzerland
It is of ten said that IOM is, fir st and foremos t, an operat ional organizati on. But even from its ear liest years, t he
leadership rec ognised the central role of scientif ic, objective research on migr ation, arguing the need for resea rch
to i nform polit ical and policy discussion, as well as IOM’s own work. IOM leadership not only ackn owledged
this need but also a ctively suppor ted it. Th e establishment of a migrat ion journal in 1961— initially fo cussed on
Europe— quickly became the globally focussed, widely acclaimed and independently edited journal International
Migration that we k now so well today. It was the firs t of its kind in the world, w ith many others to subsequently
follow in its pat h. On thi s, the jo urnal's 60th anniversar y and IOM 's 70th an niversary, it is both important and
timely to reflect on the contributions of soci al scientist s worldwide to helpin g us be tter under stand the many
dynamics and dimensions of migration.
Over the decades, we have seen International Migration publis h ground- breaking a rticles on a wide range of
emerging migrat ion issues, capturing new develo pments, as well as offering new insight s into the changing nature
of mig ration. Th is includes discussion of migr ation and development (Zanartu , 1963) a nd the effects of ‘brai n
drain’ (Beijer, 1966; Gish , 1970) as far back as the 1960s, as well as research covering remit tances (Me ndez &
Moro, 1976), circular mig ration (Conaway, 1977), immigr ation policy refo rm (Papademetriou , 1984), migrants’ in-
tegration (Berry, 1992), migrati on and health (Bourdillon & Benn egadi, 1992), human trafficking (Salt & Stein,
1997) and transnational familie s (Huang, Yeoh & Lam, 2008) in subsequent dec ades. Many of these journal articles
have helped shape international policy th inking, including lan dmark documents such as t he Palermo Protocols on
human traff icking and migrant smug gling.
As many reader s know, IOM was established in 1951 as an operat ional agency in the after math of the Second
World War in order to suppor t the resett lement of displa ced persons fro m Europe. This ce ntral operation al and
progr ammatic foc us has not only b een retain ed over time, it has diversi fied and gro wn substan tially larg er, includ-
ing to respo nd to the growth in dis placement globa lly but also to respo nd to the increasin g salience and comp lex-
ity of migratio n and migration governance.
What many may not be aware of is IOM’s long- standing s upport of the develo pment, producti on and publish-
ing of academic and app lied research on migration, for at le ast 60 of its 70 years, including as a means to build th e
This is an open ac cess article und er the terms of the Crea tive Commons Attr ibution- NonCommercial- NoDerivs License, which
permits us e and distributio n in any medium, provid ed the original wor k is properly cited , the use is non- commercial and no
modificat ions or adaptatio ns are made.
© 2021 The Author s. International Migration published by John Wil ey & Sons Ltd on behalf of In ternational Org anization for
Migration.
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