Research-policy dialogues on migrant integration in Europe: a conceptual framework and key questions

Europe has become a continent of immigration in the course of the last half century, and European societies have experienced growing ethnic and cultural diversity. Governmental actors have often made great efforts to collect and develop the knowledge and expertise to understand integration processes and to control and steer these. Major differences, however, exist between European countries in the way relations between policy and research on immigrant integration have evolved. In this first chapter three aspects of such research-policy dialogues are introduced. First, we look at concrete dialogue structures, formal or informal arrangements, such as advisory bodies, through which knowledge is exchanged. Secondly, we look at cultures and practices of knowledge utilization in policy processes. Thirdly, we look at cultures of knowledge production in the field of migration research itself. In this introductory chapter some main hypotheses are developed for each of these three aspects. These hypotheses will serve as guidance for the entire book. In Part I of the book forms and functions of research-policy dialogues will be further explored, mostly on a comparative basis. Part II analyses seven country cases plus the case of the European Union.