IMISCOE Directors Board meeting- January 2008
Purpose of the meeting
On January 25, 2008, IMISCOE Directors of the partner institutes met at the University of Amsterdam to discuss the future of IMISCOE, beyond the initial five-year period granted by the European Commission’s Sixth Framework Programme. They unanimously expressed their wish to continue the Network. Resounding consensus among Network partners and associates showed that IMISCOE has successfully mobilised the research field of international migration and created unique opportunities for European-wide cooperation in service of international migration, integration and social cohesion. In the coming period the directors and the IMISCOE Network Office will explore the possibilities for a future IMISCOE. This Newsletter will keep you updated on their achievements.
Opening words of the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences
Len de Klerk, the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Amsterdam, opened the IMISCOE Directors meeting:
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As the Dean of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences and on behalf of the Board of Governors of the University of Amsterdam, I welcome you here in this beautiful room. This is the boardroom of the Dutch East Indies Company. This is historic ground. In this building, and especially in this room, the Company boards made history by making important decisions on the Dutch economy.
So, this board room is the perfect environment for you, as the IMISCOE Board, to discuss a very important question: whether you will continue IMISCOE cooperation after April 2009, or not. And if you continue, you have to make another important decision: that of your agenda for the next period.
I understand from my colleagues at IMES, our institute for the study of migration issues, that they are proud of the past performance of IMISCOE. Although we all know that most people in our societies experience migration problems as local problems, we, at this university and in this country, do think that the interdisciplinary science of immigration only can flourish as an international comparative science. Naturally, it is important to find out what is going on in our urban neighbourhoods, in our sweatshops, industries and offices, on the local and regional labour markets and in our municipalities. But we know, too, that scientific understanding and progress only can be made through comparative research and the exchange of methodologies and results. ‘Comparative research’ means international comparative research. And ‘international’ means cooperation, because, apart from the smaller traditional demographic approach, the interdisciplinary approach of migration is a relatively young academic field of research.
We – that is to say, the University of Amsterdam – have always been strong supporters of IMISCOE, and we do plead for continuity of IMISCOE. Personally, as an urban planner and the Dean of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, I strongly support continuity of your organisation. We do not only have fundamental scientific interests. Our societies expect from us what these days in the Netherlands is called ‘valorisation’: scientific knowledge must be useful for solutions of social and economic problems, in terms of formulating the right questions and a better understanding of what is going on in society, and, last but not least, the assessment of what went wrong, where and why? And what can we learn from such cases?
I think that IMISCOE is living evidence of the fact that methodological nationalism is becoming an obsolete tradition. Migration is an international – if not a global issue – following the globalisation of our economies.
Nearly four years of increasingly intensifying cooperation has produced new research initiatives, financing, training and PhD student exchanges and the dissemination and accumulation of knowledge.
I do hope that IMISCOE will continue and expand as a Network of Excellence and will launch new research initiatives and produce workable solutions to some of today’s most critical issues, and that it will act as a springboard for young researchers, as well as bridge the valley between academic research and policy.
Dear colleagues from Belgium, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Albania, the United Kingdom, Spain, from Germany, Italy, Austria, France, Switzerland and from The Netherlands, I do hope that this historical decision room may give you inspiration. Make it the room of the 23 institutes.
Thank you very much for your attention.
