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About Nordic Migration Research
International migration and ethnic relations are fundamental issues in Nordic societies today. They currently bring challenges to politics, policy making and academic research which need to be met with a multidisciplinary and international framework. Nordic countries vary in migrant numbers, countries of origin, years of residence, integration policies and public attitudes. The common Nordic ground and some demographical and historical differences however make research collaboration very rewarding. Furthermore, joint efforts will increase opportunities to profile Nordic research at international level.
Increased migration due to reasons originating both outside and within the Nordic countries and Europe will influence these societies a great deal in the near future. To provide comprehensive knowledge for academics, policy makers and publics researchers aim to establish a Nordic Research Network for international migration and ethnic relations (IMER). To strengthen the quality of research and training the proposed IMER Network will increase networking of individual researchers, departments and institutes in different disciplines by organizing conferences, seminars, research training courses, publications, supervising, peer reviewing, and supporting mobility as well as comparative and multidisciplinary research designs. In addition, the IMER Network will reach out to the international academic community by inviting guests to develop Nordic research and by presenting Nordic research results in international academic environment. The Network also aims to keep the public and policy makers aware of the latest research results by participating in public events and offering expertise.
International migration and ethnic relations (IMER) is a multidisciplinary research field. Researchers are found within a variety of disciplines in the social and economic sciences as well as in the humanities. The issues under analysis – such as international migration, ethnic relations, social cohesion, discrimination, citizenship, culture and religion - require multidisciplinary examination. The field is currently developing intensively in Europe. It is relatively well-established in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, and the number of researchers has grown rapidly in Finland in the 2000s. There are also some researchers in Iceland. The researchers are active both in disciplinary institutions in universities, in various research institutions, including a few specific IMER research centers and in various more or less structured academic networks. The researchers have also organized themselves in national research associations, which gather a large share of the researchers (e.g. IMER-förbundet in Sweden (about 200 members) and the Society for the Study of Ethnic Relations and International Migration (ETMU) in Finland (172 paying members in 2006)). The network aims to cover all Nordic academics and doctoral students working in this field.
Despite the large number of researchers and the wide variety of institutions involved in the research field, the Nordic cooperation has been organized on an ad hoc-basis and largely informally through personal contacts. There is an urgent need to coordinate and formalize Nordic collaboration in this rather scattered field. Number of researchers and the variety of disciplines have increased rapidly during the past few years which indicates that IMER related research themes have become ever more relevant in contemporary Nordic societies. In addition, we need to initiate new forms of collaboration to strengthen the quality of research and research training to meet the new challenges in the field and academic environment.
One of the oldest forms of Nordic ad hoc cooperation has been the long series of Nordic Migration Conferences. These meetings have been inspiring and increased networking across countries and disciplines. With this experience we know that multidisciplinary collaboration in such a current field as IMER research is rewarding. However, the conferences have taken place rather infrequently and there is a need to collaborate in a more regular and intensive basis. The most recent conference was the 14th conference organized 14-16 November 2007 in Bergen, Norway, hosted by IMER/UiB (The International Migration and Ethnic Relations Research Unit at the University of Bergen); the 13th Nordic Migration Conference was organized 18-20 November 2004 by the Academy for Migration Studies in Denmark (AMID) in Aalborg; the 12th Nordic Migration Conference was in Helsinki 10-12.10. 2002 organized by CEREN at Helsinki University. Next conference is planned to take place in Sweden in 2010.
Research collaboration within the Nordic countries in the field of international migration and ethnic relations is needed particularly because of the multidisciplinary nature of the field. In addition, the field is highly topical both academically and socio-politically. Still, many of the researchers cannot necessarily find colleagues working with the same issues in their home environments. Furthermore, profiling Nordic research jointly in international research environment would give more visibility and opportunities for young researchers.
Because of the need for more formally organized Nordic research cooperation, a new association called "Nordic IMER" was founded in November 2007 at the Nordic Migration Conference in Bergen. There were several planning meetings between various Nordic researchers during in 2007. The association has an elected Board with 12 members from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, three from each country, representing some of the main research centers and national associations in the Nordic countries. The aim is also to include Iceland in the cooperation. Members of the Board of Nordic IMER constitute the co-ordinating group.
At the fourth Nordic IMER board meeting in Malmø on January 12th 2009, it was agreed to change the name of the organisation from Nordic IMER to Nordic Migration Research.