WHAT IS MIPEX?
Migrant Integration Policy Index
38 COUNTRIES
167 INDICATORS
8POLICY AREAS
The Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) is a unique tool which measures policies to integrate migrants in all EU Member States, Australia, Canada, Iceland, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey and the USA.
167 policy indicators have been developed to create a rich, multi-dimensional picture of migrants’ opportunities to participate in society. The index is a useful tool to evaluate and compare what governments are doing to promote the integration of migrants in all the countries analysed.
The project informs and engages key policy actors about how to use indicators to improve integration governance and policy effectiveness.
To that end, the project identifies and measures integration outcomes, integration policies, and other contextual factors that can impact policy effectiveness; describes the real and potential beneficiaries of policies; and collects and analyses high-quality evaluations of integration policy effects.
Thanks to the relevance and rigor of its indicators, the MIPEX has been recognised as a common quick reference guide across Europe. Policymakers, NGOs, researchers, and European and international institutions are using its data not only to understand and compare national integration policies, but also to improve standards for equal treatment.
Building on its ongoing success, the MIPEX project is entering its fourth edition with a new policy strand and additional indicators.
Why use MIPEX?
Integration actors can struggle to find up-to-date, comprehensive research data and analysis on which to base policies, proposals for change and projects to achieve equality in their country. Instead they may find anecdotal, out-dated information and piecemeal statistics that are too disconnected from the real impact on people’s lives to assist in formulating improvements.
The MIPEX aims to address this by providing a comprehensive tool which can be used to assess, compare and improve integration policy. The MIPEX includes 38 countries in order to provide a view of integration policies across a broad range of differing environments.
The tool allows you to dig deep into the multiple factors that influence the integration of migrants into society and allows you to use the full MIPEX results to analyse and assess past and future changes in policy.
Inspiring civil society action
The MIPEX data has been used by civil society to make assessments of proposed legislation on migrant integration.
Stimulating debate via the media
The national and international media have also increased attention on the MIPEX. National newspapers have concentrated on their country ratings, helping to spread fact-based information to inform national debates.
Debates will take place in person at events across Europe, the USA, Canada, East Asia and the Pacific as well as online via webinars to build recommendations for national policy improvements. You can stay up to date on these and new developments as new countries and findings are added to the MIPEX in the future by following the MIPEX
Who’s using MIPEX?
The Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) stimulates debates, informs high-level reports and is used for civil society action on migrant integration policy across the world.
It has been used in a variety of situations and by a variety of experts and stakeholders, from the UK’s House of Lords to non-governmental and church organisations and the media using comparable data to influence and inform debate. MIPEX is the most reliable and cited index of integration and citizenship policies, widely used by qualitative and quantitative researchers and academics across the world. The MIPEX has caught the attention of governments, NGOs, researchers, the media and even banks, successfully providing factual information to enhance policy debates, studies and action in the field of migrant integration.
Academic Citation:
To reference MIPEX please use the following academic citation:
Migrant Integration Policy Index 2015
Huddleston, Thomas; Bilgili, Ozge; Joki, Anne-Linde and Vankova, Zvezda (2015)
With the vision of Jan Niessen, the scientific review of Anna Bardolet, Francesc Fàbregues, J. David Ingleby and Elena Sánchez-Montijano and the support of Karina Shklyan.
Barcelona/Brussels: CIDOB and MPG | www.mipex.eu
Target Groups
Advocacy organizations and migrants can combine their practice and experience-based recommendations with the MIPEX research findings. This benchmarking tool can bring international information and standards to your advocacy. MIPEX not only monitors policy changes, but can also be used proactively to improve implementation and propose policy changes that would improve integration. You can see how to improve policies in specific areas and how to better implement existing policies by comparing them with the approach of top-scoring countries and with the highest standards.
The MIPEX tool gives policymakers a quick reference guide to assess the impact of their policy changes and get an overall impression of their country’s strengths and weaknesses. This allows governments to see the effects of their approach and policy changes. It highlights policies that score well and possible areas for improvement. You can compare these strengths and weaknesses with other countries, either across your region, Europe and North America, or all the countries at once. You can find inspiration for policies and learn lessons from their objectives, implementation and results. You can also use MIPEX to assess the impact of future changes and evaluate past policies. You can further collect and share evidence about how past policies were funded, implemented, and evaluated, so that future policies can improve.
The MIPEX can be used by global actors as a benchmark to assess the impact of international and European standards, be they binding law, voluntary agreements or recommendations, on national law and policies. It also presents information on how national governments have committed to their implementation. You can see who falls below and who goes beyond these standards; whether standards have motivated change and improvements and if there is a need for assistance in developing implementation measures. Where there are no standards you can see if there is room for future cooperation by looking at common strengths and weaknesses.
Since the project aims to make integration policy data both visible and usable to the public, researchers are incorporating it into their research, making MIPEX a platform for greater comparative knowledge on integration. It provides a systematic categorization across 8 areas of expertise and currently across 38 countries.
Its evaluation framework turns policies into numbers, using national experts to report the facts in law and policy. The scores and scales provide for clear and coherent interpretations
The MIPEX can be used by both the international and national media as a reliable, quick reference guide to provide in-depth understanding on where countries are doing well in providing equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities to migrants, and where they are falling behind. You can compare countries to neighbouring or other countries, and get an overview of what has changed and what could be done to improve integration. Since the MIPEX is updated continuously, you can regularly access contextual information and keep abreast of what is on the agenda in your country with regard to migrant integration and the impact it has on society. You can find the reasoning behind low and high scores in your country and use the results to supplement the human angle of stories on migrants and their experiences.