Demographic, Societal, and Economic Consequences of East-West Migration in Europe (EUMIG)

Migration from Eastern to Western Europe is an ongoing mass phenomenon. With some 10 million people having migrated in this direction in the past 20 years, Eastern Europe was the number one source of migration during that time. In consequence, about 10 percent of the total Central and Eastern European population currently lives in Western Europe. However, in the shadow of the successive crises of recent years, little attention has been paid to this issue. As a result, our knowledge of the potential political, social, and economic challenges and opportunities it presents is limited. This makes it difficult for policy makers to design and implement forward-looking and sustainable policies.
EUMIG aimed to take a rigorous empirical approach to studying East–West migration in Europe and to produce concrete policy recommendations and best practices to help policymakers deal with this issue effectively. Furthermore, EUMIG aimed to address all major aspects of societal change: the demographic, the political, and the economic dimensions.

EUMIG gathered scholars and practitioners from the following institutions: University of Mannheim (DE), ZEW Mannheim (DE), DeZIM Berlin (DE), EURICE (DE), Netzwerk Morgen (DE), Institute for Structural Research Warsaw (PL), Silesian Voivodeship (PL), University of Sibiu (RO), New Bulgarian University (BG), Institute of Economic Sciences (RS), University College Dublin (IE), University of Bath (UK), University of Antwerp (BE), Institute for Advanced Studies Vienna (AT), University of Vienna (AT), City of Vienna (AT).

In April 2022, the joint application for funding of the project "EUMIG - Demographic, Societal, and Economic Consequences of East-West Migration in Europe" was submitted to the European Commission within the framework of "Horizon Europe". The project met the scoring threshold required for funding but was not successful enough to stand out from the competition and was therefore not awarded the grant. However, the partner institutions are still in contact and interested in a possible future cooperation.