IMISCOE stands for International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion in Europe. It is the largest European research network in the field of migration, integration, and diversity studies. It is the largest interdisciplinary research network consisting of 73 member institutes and over 1,500 individual scholars from around the world. It brings together researchers from a wide range of academic disciplines to study migration-related issues. The network aims to connect and integrate research from various European countries, fostering a cohesive scholarly community. IMISCOE, similar to IASFM, facilitates knowledge sharing through annual conferences, publication series, and active research standing committees. Some of the key organizations within IMISCOE are CEDEM (University of Liège, Belgium) — the current Coordinating Institute; COMPAS (University of Oxford, UK); CERC in Migration and Integration (Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada); CMRS (The American University in Cairo, Egypt); GERM (Université Gaston Berger, Senegal); Casa Grande University (Ecuador).
The network is led by a Board of Directors, which includes one representative from each member institute. This board holds the highest authority, deciding on the network’s activities, funding, and membership changes. Individual members gain access to various benefits, including discounts on training activities, access to the IMISCOE book series, and access to the journal Comparative Migration Studies. Doctoral researchers have a specific PhD Network within the organization, which facilitates networking, training, and academic support through events like the PhD Academy and various workshops.
Hosted by the University of Girona, the IMISCOE 2026 annual conference focused on a central theme: “Strengthening Migration Studies through Community Engagement”. For the IASFM—which emphasizes the necessity of bridging academic research with the lived experiences of refugees and displaced persons—this theme is particularly resonant. The conference sought to move beyond Western-centric, purely academic frameworks by centring participatory, collaborative, and reflexive methodologies.
Critical Reflections
The event featured nearly 300 panels and workshops, reflecting the massive scale of the IMISCOE network. However, the critical value for IASFM lies in the particular debates listed below:
- The Power Dynamics of Participation: A key discussion point was the challenge of implementing participatory research within existing funding and academic structures. Participants questioned whether unequal or exploitative relationships can ever be fully transcended, emphasizing that true community engagement requires institutions to value and support this work, rather than just individual researchers.
- Intersectionality and “Lived Experience”: Presentations reinforced the need for an intersectional lens to analyze discrimination, highlighting that institutional barriers often affect specific groups in ways that defy simplistic identity-based assumptions.
- Expanding the Narrative: A notable critique within the sessions and plenaries was the “missing humanity” in research. Scholars were encouraged to move beyond narratives of tragedy and oppression to incorporate facets of joy, love, and comedy, arguing that these human elements are essential to fostering connection and authentic representation of migrant stories.
Lessons for the IASFM Community
For those working in forced migration, the Girona conference served as a reminder that “community engagement” is not merely a methodological trend but a prerequisite for ethical knowledge production. The emphasis on “co-production” mirrors the IASFM’s own mandate to merge the insights of scholars and practitioners.
As the field continues to evolve, the challenge highlighted in Girona remains pertinent for IASFM members: how to ensure that the voices of those with lived experience are not just “heard,” but actually shift the power structures that determine how research is conducted, funded, and applied.
Within the IMISCOE network, there is a Standing Committee on Forced Migration and Refugees (FMR) with which IASFM must establish closer ties. The FMR seeks to avoid the “silo-isation” of forced migration studies by critically reflecting on the conventional dichotomy between voluntary and forced migration. It acts as a forum for interdisciplinary debate, covering a broad range of theoretical, normative, and methodological approaches. The committee also covers diverse categories of displacement, including refugees, asylum seekers, and individuals affected by climate change or disasters. It also incorporates the study of (involuntary) immobility, recognizing that staying put is often an active, relevant state. Finally, the committee aims for global coverage, explicitly including the Global South, Global East, and Global North.
President, IASFM
