This process is a new political process promoting migration partnerships among the participating states of the European Union, the Schengen Area, South Eastern and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, in addition to Turkey, which started with a Ministerial Conference in Prague 2009. ICMPD hosts the organisational support team, which provides the organisational and substantial assistance to the leading states, which are the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. In December 2010, the Czech Republic handed over the leadership of the Process to Poland.

The guiding principles are defined by the "Building Migration Partnerships" Joint Declaration endorsed at a ministerial level by 49 states at the Prague Ministerial Conference in April 2009. The Republic of Belarus joined the BMP initiative in December 2010.