IRD has a very important role in studying migrations. It is a partner of the Migrations Convergence Institute which seeks interdisciplinary cooperation to coordinate research on this major contemporary problem and to provide specific training for future researchers. Through the MIGRINTER, CEPED and URMIS research units, in 2017 IRD organised the Summer School “Migrations and Globalisations: Beyond the migratory crises”.
The current migratory crisis in Europe reveals the need for reliable scientific data to help public authorities make important decisions, in emergency contexts and various political situations. In response to these concerns, the Inserm and the CNRS mobilised five education and research institutions (Ined, IRD, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, EHESS and EPHE), with the aim of creating an interdisciplinary Institute for studying migrations. It will be launched in 2019 on the Condorcet Campus, and will bring together 200 researchers. This structure will be funded by the French ministry for national education, higher education and research, under the “Instituts Convergences” call for tenders.
Over recent decades, migrations researchers have evolved greatly in their objectives, methods, concepts and terrains. The intensification of flows between distant places, the diversification of routes, the circulation of information, technologies and goods, but also the meeting between populations of diverse origins both on the routes and in destinations, cosmopolitanism, and the rejection reactions produced by situations of co-presence, pose new questions for the social sciences. Considering that the current “migratory crises” are simply paroxysmal indicators of tensions brought by the globalisation of exchanges, this summer school brought together doctoral students and experienced researchers, for in-depth reflection on the stakes of migrations in contemporary times.