Targeted policy responses for irregular migration require better knowledge about the characteristics of the irregular migrant population and dynamics of irregular migration, as well as about the effects of policy measures. Yet, quantitative data relating to irregular migration are scarce, often outdated and contested. The inadequecy of current data makes it challenging for stakeholders to develop and monitor policies. How do legal frameworks in different countries define migrant irregularity? What are the characteristics of irregular migrants in terms of age, gender, nationality or other socioeconomic variables? How can the effects of policy measures, such as regularisation, be assessed? MIrreM adresses the challenge of insufficent knowledge about irregular migration and regularisation in Europe by actively involving relevant stakeholders in every stage of this project – as co-creators of its results and as stakeholders to its mission. In a rigorous comparative and multi-level study, we will assess the policies, data needs and estimates that define migrant irregularity in 11 EU member states, the UK, Canada, the USA and five transit countries. Using several coordinated pilots we will develop new and innovative methods for measuring irregular migration and ‘regularisation scenarios’, and we will explore if and how these instruments can be transferred or scaled up to other socio-economic or institutional conditions. Based on these insights, we will develop two public databases: a) a database with estimates on irregular migrant stocks and b) a database on irregular migration flows, that will also include data on regularisations. Together with the expert groups, we will synthesize our findings into a Handbook on data on irregular migration and a Handbook on regularisation that will support evidenced-based and targeted policymaking concerning irregular migration. Finally, we will develop training resources for policymakers, practitioners, journalists and early-career researchers.

MIGRASYL (“Migration & asylum challenges in the Euro-Mediterranean and Africa”) focuses on the study of Mediterranean third countries as a field of experimentation on the issue of migration and as a bridging link between Southern Europe and the Sahel. Mediterranean migration has become a major concern for academic researchers, European policy makers and public opinion. Since 2011, major political upheavals on the Southern shore of the Mediterranean have brought about a crisis situation with new long-term socio-economic and legal consequences at a Euro-Mediterranean level. These changes require the renewal of the paradigms and frameworks of thought. The Mediterranean is a particularly relevant laboratory for the development of new migratory configurations. It is at the crossroads of the South-North migration route and also those of South-South, East-West. It is composed of neighbouring countries that are especially affected by migration because of their geographical location at the "forefront" of arrivals of migrants and refugees from Africa and the Middle East. MIGRASYL’s ambition is to promote the third countries’ migration policy domain that it is in urgent need of investigation. This area is a crucial empirical field for analyzing the complex interrelation concerning push factors and policies managing migration, asylum and refugees in the EuroMed. In the long term, MIGRASYL aims to build a unique multi-partner digital platform, gathering national migration observatories. With this international project, and over a 18 months period (November 2017 – April 2019), MIGRASYL will constitute a network of Euro-Mediterranean and sub-Saharan partners (France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Austria, Turkey, Mauritania, Senegal, Tunisia, Morocco, Lebanon, Malta) thanks to workshops dedicated to the challenges of international migrations and to the evolution of asylum law in this geographical area. These workshops and the MIGRASYL consortium meeting will aim at organizing and structuring an international H2020 project which will be submitted to the European Commission in 2018 or 2019, in the framework of the Societal Challenge “Europe in a changing world – Inclusive, innovative and reflective societies”, « 1. Call on Migration and the refugee crisis ». The MIGRASYL researchers will conduct fieldwork on 3 geographical areas: Southern Europe, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, which are all impacted by important migratory flows and by the hosting of asylum seekers. MIGRASYL ambitions to gather partner institutions in the field of socio-anthropology, political sciences, law, history, demography and geography. This core partnership will be complemented by a network of associations, NGOs and Euro-Mediterranean civil society players. MIGRASYL’s outcomes will include empirical knowledge on social assistance schemes of host and transit countries, based on interviews and statistical data. Policy-makers will benefit from an analysis of the coherence and effectiveness of European policies on migration, compared with the development of migration policies in third countries. MIGRASYL will highlight good practices of institutions active in the defense of migrants and migration governance, at local, regional, national and international level, in order to combat irregular migration. It will also provide an analysis on the unexplored link between migration and sustainable development policies, particularly for Africa.

Link4Skills is a global research and innovation project on skill shortages. The acronym reflects the objectives of the call by linking for/4 fair skill matching. It embeds 4 processes of responding to skill shortages: re/up skilling of established populations (incl. migrants and inactive women), raising wages, automation and migration. It considers 4 continents: Europe, Africa, Asia and America, where skill shortages and skill flows will be analysed. It develops the AI-Assisted Skill Navigator for stakeholders from employment, vocational training organisations in origins and destinations. Link4Skills will scrutinize: (a) how to identify the existing and emerging required skills in changing labour markets?; (b) how the EU should respond to skill shortages?; (c) how to recruit the required skills from various pools either from the existing workforce (including established migrant populations and inactive women) also supported by automation, and from the workforce from non-EU countries? The project combines data on skill gaps and matching in the EU with analyses about human capital in origins; investigates emerging and established migration skill corridors between EU and India, Morocco, Ghana, Nigeria, Philippines, Indonesia, and Ukraine, in order to make enriched inventories of skill partnerships. The project achieves its aims via econometric microsimulations based on EU databases, combining skill supply and demand, and by data collections and stakeholders’ expertise oversees. The knowledge will be nested in the AI-Assisted Skill Navigator (TRL5) which is a Knowledge-Based Expert System, that goes beyond existing policy dashboards. It is an open access system available to public. It is co-created by labour market stakeholders in every partner country. Partners will take care about stakeholders’ involvements in the project, by enhancing tailor-made communication and dissemination. The project will also produce Link4Skill Podcast Series and academic outlets.

TRAFIG introduces a novel perspective on protracted displacement situations (PDS) that will improve the protection and resilience of refugees and enhance trust and cooperation between refugees and host communities. It considers the transnational and local connectivity of displaced people and host communities as well as their capability of mobility as socioeconomic and socio-psychological resources that displaced people use and upon which their resilience relies. The project will develop a rapid assessment tool to identify the most vulnerable groups in PDS and to analyse interactions between displaced and host communities. As an evidence-based tool for creating impact, it will support policymakers and practitioners to enhance the self-reliance of displaced people as well as host-refugees relations through tailored programming and policy development. We closely cooperate with key stakeholders throughout the entire life cycle of the project. Our research is based on a novel concept of transnational figurations of displacement that combines the figuration model – a meso-level approach emphasizing the networks of interdependent human beings – with the transnationalism approach and state-of-the-art knowledge on forced displacement. Through comparative empirical research, both qualitative and quantitative, in camps and urban settings at sites in Asia, Africa, and Europe, TRAFIG will answer the following questions: (1) How do displaced people gain access to and make use of humanitarian and migration policies and programmes? (2) Why and how do displaced people live in vulnerable situations and sustain their livelihoods? How can policy support their self-reliance? (3) How do transnational networks shape refugees’ experiences and trajectories? (4) Which processes structure relations between displaced people and host communities? (5) What are the medium and long-term economic impacts of PDS?

The INNOVATE project aims to facilitate a step change in the types, scope, forms and impacts of Migration Research to Policy (MR2P) engagement. It will do so through a series of Actions that develop, test, apply and communicate Process Innovations that are grounded in the needs and interests of researchers, policy-makers and other key stakeholders, including migrants, that are engaged with migration issues across governance levels from the local to the international. It will then embed these within an MR2P Collaboratory with both a ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ presence comprising a Research Exchange, Engagement Hub and Training Facility. The project’s Objectives are to: 1. Establish as a key project outcome the MR2P Collaboratory as a go-to resource that promotes use of and valorises research evidence in both ‘virtual’ and ‘real’ formats to support policymaking 2. Develop its coordination and support actions based on principles of co-creation that are migrant-centred. 3. Create opportunities for mutual learning between researchers, policy-makers, citizens and people with lived migration experiences 4. Engage at all stages with Strategic Stakeholders to generate a multiplier effect of increased engagement during the life of the project. 5. Design Process Innovation Actions to promote use of and valorise knowledge and promote mutual learning by addressing key topics in MR2P relations 6. Have built-in margins of flexibility to respond to new and emerging issues 7. Expand the strategic scope of the work by complementing and enhancing the role of existing EU networks and evidence sources 8. Provide insights from behavioural science to bridge work on narratives, frames and perceptions 9. Create measurable indicators of the project’s success and impact along four dimensions: building capacity; incentivising engagement; in incentivising engagement; increasing demand; and increasing uptake 10. Establish activities with the potential to generate income beyond the duration of funding