According to UN assessments, there are 214 million international migrants worldwide and another 740 million internal migrants . The OECD highlights that there seems little likelihood of substantial reductions in numbers of international migrants in the current decade . Rises in global population, new demographic trends including ageing population, environmental deterioration and an increased globalisation of the economy are some of the factors which will encourage emigration flows in coming years. International migration, firmly at the top of the EU’s political agenda, must be analysed from the integration perspective as the key factor for the future cohesion of European societies.

The INTEGRIM programme is developed by a sound and well established network of 8 full partner academic institutions and 6 non-academic associated partners from the private and public sector, civil society and international organisations with outstanding research and training credentials on migration and integration issues. The aim of this programme is to structure the existing high-quality research capacity on migration and integration policies and processes in Europe through 480 person-months of Early-Stage Researchers. INTEGRIM will consider processes and policies concerning integration of foreign nationals within EU countries, including third-country nationals and European nationals migrating to other European states when they face substantial integration difficulties.

The existing fruitful collaboration among the Network’s partners through existing research networks such as the EC acknowledged network of excellence IMISCOE has evidenced the capacity and added value to pool the talent to the benefit of a common critical mass and enhancement of the academic knowledge. INTEGRIM aims to enhance academic research capacity, encourage policy-relevant research on integration and diversity management and facilitate the use of that research by governments and non-governmental organisations.