The Centre of Migration Research (CMR) is a university-wide organisational unit of the University of Warsaw. It was established as a research team with the aim of conducting wide-ranging, in-depth research into contemporary international migration in the context of socio-economic changes in Poland and Europe.
It comprises an interdisciplinary group of several dozen researchers representing various academic disciplines, including: sociology, economics, psychology, political science and public administration, law, social and economic geography, and cultural anthropology, whose research focuses on the broadly understood analysis of migration phenomena. Geographically, the research activities of the Centre concentrate on Central and Eastern Europe, with particular emphasis on the outflow of migrants from Poland and the inflow of foreign nationals into our country. CMR researchers have a significant positive impact on the assessment of their respective disciplines in the recent evaluation round.
CMR’s Activities
CMR’s activities take place across several different areas:
Scientific and research activities
Scientific and research activities have been the Centre’s primary focus since its inception. CMR has carried out research projects of varying scale and scope, funded from both domestic and international sources. As of 2025, 34 research projects were being carried out at the CMR. A large proportion of these have been funded by the National Science Centre (including international schemes OPUS-LAP and Daina) and under the Horizon Europe scheme. The institutions and schemes funding the remaining projects include: the European Commission (FERS), the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies, the National Centre for Research and Development, and the Research University Initiative of Excellence.
In addition to these projects, the Centre organises national and international seminars and conferences on migration issues in the Central and Eastern European region, disseminating research findings and fostering collaboration amongst migration researchers. The annual IMISCOE network conference, held in Warsaw in July 2023, played a key role in this regard.
International cooperation plays an important role in the Centre’s activities. Since 1991, the Centre has participated in the SOPEMI project – monitoring migration trends in Poland and other OECD countries. Since 2007, the CMR has been a member of the IMISCOE Research Network (which functioned as the IMISCOE Network of Excellence until 2009), a network bringing together 63 leading institutes engaged in migration research.
The Centre’s activities also serve other public bodies. On behalf of the government, international organisations and other entities, the Centre systematically prepares expert reports on the development of migration policy, the situation of foreign nationals in the Polish labour market, the impact of European Union enlargement on migration processes, and other topics related to migration.
The Centre’s scientific and research activities are carried out by three main research teams:
- Socio-Economic Research Team
- Socio-Cultural Research Team
- Migration Policy Team
CMR’s main areas of research:
- Theories and methods in migration research
- Determinants of migration decisions at various levels of analysis
- Causes and consequences of emigration from Poland
- The influx and integration of foreign nationals into the Polish labour market
- The formation, functioning and integration of immigrant communities in Poland
- Migration policy in Poland and the EU
- The functioning of the border and irregular migration
- Social mobility of immigrants
- Migration and population ageing
- Transnational political and public participation of migrants
The Centre’s research programme adopts a comprehensive and in-depth research approach using a variety of methods. The fundamental principles underpinning the Centre’s activities since its inception have been interdisciplinarity and the high quality of its research. The Centre’s activities focus on participation in long-term research projects based on promising research methods (research panels, ethno-survey, Respondent-Driven Sampling).
Teaching activities
Since 2003, CMR has been offering a postgraduate programme dedicated to international migration, which has so far been completed by several hundred students. The postgraduate programme is aimed at employees of public services (including customs, border guards and the police), central government, local authorities, labour market institutions, non-governmental organisations and anyone interested in contemporary migration processes.
Regardless of this, we have recently stepped up our efforts to develop a range of courses for University of Warsaw students. Since 2022, we offer the international programme ‘Interdisciplinary Studies in Social Sciences’ in collaboration with the Faculty of Artes Liberales, and from 1 October 2023, the ‘Migration Studies – New Societies’ programme, established as part of the 4EU+ initiative (in collaboration with the University of Milan and Charles University in Prague).
Publications
Since 2012, the Centre has been publishing the journal Central and Eastern European Migration Review (CEEMR), which specialises in migration issues in the Central and Eastern European region; it is a biannual journal available in full online under an open-access model (Scopus-indexed; Impact Factor = 1.2). The results of research conducted at the CMR are regularly published (in Polish and English) in the CMR’s publication series – CMR Working Papers. This series now comprises 200 issues and is a popular source of information on contemporary migration trends in Poland and Europe for students, migration researchers and practitioners both in Poland and internationally. In 2018, to mark the Centre’s 25th anniversary, a new series of publications entitled CMR Spotlight was launched, with the aim of providing timely responses to key developments in the field of migration.
History
The Centre for Migration Research (CMR) was established in 1993 as an interdisciplinary research team dedicated to conducting wide-ranging, in-depth research into contemporary migration in Poland. Initially, the Centre was part of the inter-faculty Institute of Social Studies. In 2005, it was incorporated into the structure of the Faculty of Economic Sciences . From 2008 to 2019, the Centre for Migration Research held the status of an independent university unit working closely with two faculties: the Faculty of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Warsaw (formerly the Faculty of Journalism and Political Science at the University of Warsaw) and the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the University of Warsaw. In 2020, the Centre for Migration Research (CMR) was granted the status of a university-wide organisational unit of the University of Warsaw (OGUW). Over time, the CMR has become one of the leading research institutions in Europe and the largest centre for migration research in Poland, the only one in the country specialising exclusively in this field. In 2023, the Centre celebrated its 30th anniversary.