The International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) is an inter-governmental organization with UN Observer status and 15 Member States (Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden and Switzerland). With its headquarter in Vienna and a mission in Brussels, ICMPD has also regional offices and representatives in Eastern Europe, Northern Africa, the Middle East and South America.
The purpose of ICMPD is to promote innovative, comprehensive and sustainable migration policies. The organisation has established a reputation for its research on international migration trends and patterns, as well as policies in the wider European context based on comparative analysis.
Since the beginning of the 1990s, ICMPD has been involved in numerous national, bilateral and EU-level initiatives in the field of border management, with a particular focus on the concept of Integrated Border Management. Over the years, ICMPD's Competence Centre for Border Management and Visa has implemented border management projects and activities in many regions of the world, including the European Union, Western Balkans, South East Europe, Southern Caucasus, Central Asia, Africa, South America and South East Asia.
ICMPD’s Research Department focuses on salient current migration issues: processes and mechanisms of international migration and its governance, irregular migration and trafficking, as well as integration and non-discrimination. The objective of ICMPD’s Research Unit is to further knowledge on migration related issues, to facilitate co-operation and synergy within and beyond the research community and to respond to an increased demand for a more policy oriented, empirical research with an interdisciplinary and international approach.