About the Transatlantic Council on Migration

The Transatlantic Council on Migration (TCM) is a unique deliberative body that examines vital policy issues and informs migration policymaking processes across Europe, North America, and Australia. The Council’s work is at the cutting edge of policy analysis and evaluation and is thus an essential tool of policymaking.

Launched in 2008, the Transatlantic Council is an initiative of the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, DC that was first convened by MPI's founding President, Demetrios Papademetriou. The Council’s work is generously supported by the following foundations and governments: the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and the governments of Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.

For more information on the Transatlantic Council on Migration, please contact MPI International Program Associate Director Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan at 202-266-1923 or [email protected].

• Mission
• Approach
• History
• Council Statements
• Meetings

Mission

The Council has a dual mission:

• To help inform the transatlantic immigration and integration agenda and promote better-informed policymaking by proactively identifying critical policy issues, analyzing them in light of the best research, and bringing them to public attention.
• To serve as a resource for governments as they grapple with the challenges and opportunities associated with international migration.

Approach

The Council’s approach is evidence-based, progressive yet pragmatic, and ardently independent. The policy options placed before the Council for its deliberation are analyzed and vetted by some of the world’s best specialists.

The policy fields explored include:

• Advancing social cohesion and social justice through more thoughtful citizenship and integration policies that focus equally on rights and responsibilities.
• Enhancing economic growth and competitiveness through immigration.
• Encouraging and facilitating greater mobility through better security.
• Understanding better the relationship between states and emerging religious communities and fleshing out the rights and responsibilities of all parties.
• Understanding better the complex links between migration and development.

History

The Council succeeds the Transatlantic Task Force on Immigration and Integration, launched in 2006 by MPI and the Bertelsmann Stiftung.

Council Statements

Since its inception, the Council has released a statement after each convening, summarizing some of the key discussion points and findings to come out of the meeting. All Council Statements are available here. 

Meetings

The Council convenes twice a year, in the spring and fall, and also holds extraordinary meetings as necessary. All meetings are conducted under the Chatham House Rule. A list of all the prior meetings and related papers prepared for the Council meeetings can be accessed here:

May 2020 - Virtual
International Mobility and Migration in the Age of COVID-19 and Future Pandemics

October 2019 - Brussels
Coming Together or Coming Apart? A New Phase of International Cooperation

February 2019 - Vienna
Rebuilding Community After Crisis: An Updated Social Contract for a New Migration Reality