Welcome to the Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies (IMIS)

The Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies (IMIS) is an interdisciplinary and interdepartmental research institute at the University of Osnabrück. It includes scientists and non-local correspondent members from different approaches, fields and disciplines such as demography, geography, history, politics, law, economics, ethnology, sociology, intercultural education, intercultural management, gender studies, linguistics, literature, and psychology.

Society has always been faced with and will continue to be challenged by problems of migration, integration, interculturalism and the relations between minorities and majorities. Thus the institute explores different aspects of spatial mobility and intercultural experience from both historical and contemporary perspectives. Regarding migration, these aspects include migrants’ separation from their home community and their integration into the host society, i.e. factors influencing and shaping migration as well as effects of migration on the home and host societies. Research also focuses on intercultural problems not connected to migration and aims to promote intercultural competence.

The institute is an international centre for academic research and interdisciplinary exchange. With its specialized library and well-equipped work-rooms, the IMIS offers an ideal research environment to its members and to visiting scientists from Germany and abroad, postgraduates and assistant scientists working on a project. The institute endeavours to intensify and coordinate research on migration and intercultural themes, to critically inform the professional and general public, to foster a dialogue between academia and practice, and to provide well-founded assessments and recommendations. Pursuing these objectives since its foundation in 1991, the institute has carried out scientific research, published widely, held talks and conferences, provided scientific advice and, through the media, has critically commented on policies.