Investing in the next generation of migration experts: how ICMPD supports today’s students to become tomorrow’s policymakers?

The multi-disciplinary nature of migration as a theme has been the heart of ICMPD’s International Summer School on Migration, first organised in 2012. Since then, it has brought together hundreds of students and young professionals from across Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and beyond.

That multi-disciplinary principle has been a constant through the years: migration cannot be properly understood with just a single disciplinary lens. A lawyer may approach migration through human rights, legal status and state obligations; while an economist would look at labour markets, skills, and remittances. A demographer will see migration impact on population change; whereas a journalist will pursue narratives, perceptions and political discourses. A migration policymaker, therefore, must consider all these perspectives together.

This is why the ICMPD’s Migration Summer School deliberately brings together participants from different academic and professional backgrounds and exposes them to perspectives beyond their own fields. The purpose is not to produce identical migration experts. On the contrary, it prepares future professionals to recognise the complexity of migration and ask better questions before searching for answers.

Over the years of ICMPD’s Summer Schools, I have increasingly come to believe that one of the most valuable elements of this programme is not the knowledge transferred during lectures. Knowledge changes alongside with changes of migration routes, policies, laws and governments, with new political or climate crises, with development of new information and transportation resources, and new forms of mobility. More importantly, it is the ability to analyse evidence critically, distinguish assumptions from facts, understand competing perspectives, and remain intellectually curious.

Compared to migration, few public policy fields are accompanied by such strong political narratives, public perceptions, and personal experiences. This is also true for the students who join the Summer School with different views of migration, shaped by their countries, academic backgrounds, and individual experiences. When they leave, they should not necessarily agree with one another; rather, they are better equipped to understand why different perspectives exist and how evidence can help link and navigate them.

For this reason, the Summer School is never designed simply as a series of lectures. Academic teaching is combined with discussions and practical exercises, group work using real-world examples and cases, and direct interaction with esteemed migration researchers and practitioners. Professors and experts from leading universities and ICMPD specialists do not only lecture; they challenge participants to question, debate, and apply their academic knowledge with policy realities. So often, the most valuable part of a session begins when the presentation ends.

Another dimension that becomes visible only over time: whereas a Summer School lasts for a week, professional relationships last considerably longer.

Participating students may later find themselves working as professionals in ministries, universities, international organisations, civil society, or the media. A young researcher from one country may meet a future government official from another. People from different countries who might one day negotiate migration agreements, design integration programmes, analyse migration trends or report on migration – first encounter each other around the same classroom table.

In its core, migration is an international phenomenon. It happens across the borders and cannot be effectively governed by countries acting entirely in isolation. It requires dialogue across borders, international institutions and cross-border professional communities. Creating these relationships early therefore has value beyond individual capacity building; it contributes to a generation of professionals who are accustomed to discussing migration across national and thematic boundaries.

After more than a decade of Summer Schools, this network of alumni is perhaps one of the initiative's most important assets, and one whose potential we are only beginning to witness.

For many of us working on the development and implementation of international cooperation projects, there is a temptation to measure capacity development through immediate outputs: number of participants trained, sessions delivered, or materials produced. While these indicators matter, the impact of education often works differently.

After each Summer School we receive immediate feedback, which is always rewarding, encouraging, and motivating. However, the real, longer impact to the students and young professionals will only be visible years later: when a former participant conducts research that informs policy, becomes a journalist covering migration, joins a ministry, designs a programme, advises a government, or represents their country in international migration dialogues. Taking this longer-term perspective provides a different view of about initiatives like the International Migration Summer School.

Migration governance requires strong institutions, reliable research evidence, and effective international cooperation. Each of these three components ultimately depend on people as capable professionals, as researchers who produce and interpret evidence, and as policy makers who understand international cooperation and negotiate with perspectives beyond their national context. Investing in the next generation of migration professionals is therefore not separate from strengthening migration governance. It is how we can make migration governance sustainable.

The ICMPD International Migration Summer School has evolved considerably. Since 2012 we ave been working with different countries, discussed different migration challenges, and added or updated subjects and exercises into the programme. But its underlying purpose has remained: bringing together young people and Europe's leading migration scholars and practitioners to exchange insights and perspectives, think critically, and actively collaborative about migration.

The way forward is to think how this investment can evolve on even longer term: What could emerge from a sustained international community of Migration Summer School alumni? How could future editions connect students and young professionals from ICMPD Member States, the EU neighbourhood and other regions where ICMPD works? Could alumni return as practitioners, mentors or lecturers? Could the Summer School be a place where future migration researchers, policymakers and practitioners building professional relationships before they reunite across negotiating tables years later?

International organisations would focus on the migration challenges directly in front of us. However, I do believe that institutions working on migration have a responsibility to look beyond the immediate policy horizon. When we bring together talented young people from different countries and cultures to debate migration, we are not only organising capacity development activities; we may already be enabling the people who will shape migration policy two decades years from now. This is why ICMPD’s Migration Summer Schools, how it prepares young people for their future responsibilities, may be one of the most forward-looking investments we can make today.

Violeta Wagner is Regional Portfolio Manager at the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), where she oversees the development and implementation of migration programmes and strategic initiatives across a diverse region spanning Eastern Europe and Central Asia. With an academic background in international law, she has devoted her professional career to migration policy and international cooperation, working at the intersection of policy development, institutional capacity building and practical implementation.

Over the course of her career, she has worked across a broad range of migration-related areas, including migration governance, border management, labour mobility, diaspora engagement, displacement and integration, return and reintegration, and cooperation with civil society and local authorities. Her work has involved close cooperation with governments, European institutions, international organisations and other partners, with a particular focus on translating policy priorities into practical and sustainable responses. She has also been actively engaged in developing platforms for professional exchange, capacity development and dialogue among migration practitioners from Europe and neighbouring regions.