12 Jul 07

The John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation has awarded a $900,000 grant to the International Migration Institute (IMI) at Oxford University to carry out research into migratory patterns in and around four major African countries.

Collaborative research projects are planned in Morocco, Nigeria, Ghana and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, involving African researchers from local institutions. One key aim is to develop the capacity of African institutions to undertake state-of-the-art migration research during and beyond the three-year programme.

The award will fund a three-year research project African Perspectives on Human Mobility, which aims to track the movement of city-dwellers as well as tribal groups, both internally and cross-border. A series of studies, designed and conducted in partnership with African researchers, will aim to generate new data, methodologies and conceptual frameworks.

The grant is part of the Chicago-based MacArthur Foundation's Initiative on Global Migration and Human Mobility, which supports projects that aim to reshape perceptions of human mobility throughout the world. The IMI is part of Oxford University's James Martin 21st Century School; set up to find new answers to the great challenges facing humanity in the current period. The African Perspectives on Human Mobility Programme will build upon and be integrated within the IMI's broader African Migrations Programme.

Professor Stephen Castles, Co-Director of the IMI, said: 'Africa is currently experiencing rapid social change. Large-scale human mobility is both a result of such change, and a major factor reshaping communities and societies. Yet there we know far too little about these processes - there is a lack of statistical data, and far too little on-the-ground research. This grant will enable IMI to work with African colleagues to help remedy these deficiencies.'

This award allows the International Migration Institute to continue with its aim of helping to develop new theoretical and methodological approaches and to strengthen global research capacity in order to keep up with continually changing patterns and processes of human mobility across the world in the 21st century.

Dr Ian Goldin, Director of the James Martin 21st Century School, said: 'Understanding migration and developing appropriate policy responses is a critical challenge of our time. I am delighted that the MacArthur Foundation has recognised the tremendous work being undertaken by the International Migration Institute and through its grant will support research which will greatly add to our understanding of African migration.'