Learn more about LISER’s departments, shaping our contributions to societal and scientific challenges.

Discover research that examines key challenges in employment, economic trends and social dynamics within the labour market, offering valuable insights into these important areas.

Living Conditions

Engage with research that investigates the factors influencing living standards, with a focus on income distribution, housing conditions and social inclusion, providing evidence-based insights into these crucial areas.

Urban Development and Mobility

Studies urban dynamics to identify pathways of actors to stimulate sustainable urban transitions.

Appel à Communications: Les relations industrielles dans un monde du travail en mutation

Learn more about our cross-departmental programmes, which combine interdisciplinary expertise to tackle transversal challenges.

Crossing Borders

Discover how our research into the complexities of cross-border mobility is advancing knowledge, shaping policy, benefiting society and addressing global challenges.

Health and Health Systems

Engage with research dedicated to enhancing public health, improving healthcare accessibility, and promoting equitable and efficient health solutions at a global scale.

Discover LISER's initiatives, driving scientific progress and fostering meaningful collaborations with stakeholders.

Doctoral programmes

Meet a dynamic community of researchers addressing critical societal challenges through innovative and interdisciplinary studies. Our doctoral programme offers exceptional training, mentorship and opportunities to shape impactful policies and drive innovation in diverse fields.

Data Science and Simulation

The Centre of Competence for Data Science and Simulation (DSS) is a cross-departmental initiative. Our ambition is to develop infrastructure, tools and competences in in machine learning, big data, microsimulation and geoexperimentation to conduct excellent research and advise policy-makers as well as stakeholders.

cc-EXPAR - Competence Centre in Experimental and Participatory Research

The Competence Centre in Experimental and Participatory Research (EXPAR) is a cross-departmental initiative. Our ambition is to improve awareness of and skills in experimental and participatory research methods to strengthen LISER’s position at the forefront of internationally high quality, scientifically rigorous and societally relevant research.

Labour Market

Topic: Migration

Understanding why people migrate and how migration shapes lives, communities and economies.

About the topic

Migration of workers has been reshaping societies across the world. Why do people migrate? How do structural trends, such as climate change and technological development, shape migration decisions? How does migration affect the economic and social development of origin and destination communities? What are the consequences of migrating for the migrants themselves? How do migration and integration policies shape all these outcomes?

A candid scene of an international newcomer meeting a local adviser in a community centre or employment service. Both are engaged in a conversation, with a few documents on the table. This connects migration choices, employment opportunities and support for integration while keeping the focus on people’s agency.

Our objectives

Our research seeks to answer these questions by producing rigorous, policy-relevant evidence on the factors that influence migration choices. We seek to understand who comes, who stays and who leaves, and to measure the impact of these movements on both origin and destination societies. We also assess how migration and integration policies can shape these effects.

Beyond academic publications, we share our results through open-access policy briefs and online dashboards designed for a general audience including policymakers, academics and other non-academic stakeholders. We support national stakeholders in monitoring and evaluating integration policies and collaborate with international institutions, such as the United Nations and the World Bank, to develop tools to monitor and project immigrant flows.

People walking with wheeled luggage on the train station.

Focus on

Our research adopts three complementary perspectives: the people who move, the places they leave and settle in, and the policies that shape their paths. First, it studies potential movers in origin countries and the opportunities and constraints they face. Once they migrate, we study how changing countries affects their careers and their lives. Second, it focuses on the places where migration flows originate and arrive, highlighting impacts on local labour, housing and commuting markets, including the cross-border region around Luxembourg. Third, it examines how public policies, including visa policies, integration programmes and citizenship rules, shape these paths, from migration decisions to immigrants’ lives at destination. Beyond today's policies, we develop tools to project how structural changes, such as technological disruption and climate change, may alter migration flows and poverty worldwide.

Map of world with part of the african continent, covered with red and blue pixels indicating migration trends.

Research methodologies

Our work combines economic theory, large-scale data and causal inference. We rely on structural models, including spatial general equilibrium models at a very fine geographic resolution, to analyse how structural changes affect migration patterns and origin and destination countries. Administrative data allow us to track individual paths and careers, while original surveys shed light on subjective elements such as expectations and perceptions. We run randomised controlled trials to assess how information treatments affect individual behaviour and apply quasi-experimental methods to evaluate integration policies, including access to citizenship.

Key Topic contributors