Common ground for international migration
In the last 20 years, new migration systems have been established that can be researched via various disciplines. As migration has become limitless in terms of national boundaries, it is a topic that lends itself to a broad area of exploration. The EU-funded MIGMEDCIS project focused on the socioeconomic and economic aspects of migration. A starting point was with the notion that there are international similarities concerning migration and many tools available that can be used to research them. Hence, the project looked at geopolitical contexts across disciplines involving universities from three countries (Czech Republic, Italy and Russia). Rather than a typical case study approach, a universal one was used to realise the project's main aim: to foster a unified understanding of migration research that spans academic cultures. This involved looking at the EU concerning Mediterranean countries and both the EU and the Russian Federation concerning the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Although the three systems have had little exchange among them due to language barriers, academic work had been done on an isolated level. One of the main recipients of migration in the last two decades is the Russian Federation, which is known for attracting the most international migration after the United States. Such a boom gives rise to many troubles. The EU and the Russian Federation share the common problems of a low rate of economic development, high corruption and unemployment. A main success of the project was that it managed to get scholars to communicate on the issues of migration. It has also allowed young scholars to become familiar with academia in the EU and Russian Federation and, most importantly, established a common pathway for future collaboration. The work will be presented in follow-up activities and can prove useful for formulating demographics and migration policy.
Keywords
International migration, national boundaries, economic aspects, geopolitical contexts
