Global Migration and Human Mobility

Grantmaking Guidelines

Purpose
In 2006, the Foundation began grantmaking under a new Initiative on Global Migration and Human Mobility. Through this initiative, the Foundation will support a small number of institutions and projects, with the aim of advancing three main objectives: 1) to develop improved understandings of global migration through support of policy-relevant empirical research and improved sources of data on migrant flows; 2) to encourage better governance of migration at global, regional, and national levels; and 3) to stimulate new thinking on broader issues of global human mobility.

Strategies
MacArthur will be providing a limited number of grants in the following areas:
· Governance of global migration;
· Migration and development;  and,
· Re-conceptualizing global human mobility.

Governance of global migration

The Foundation will seek to contribute to an improvement in the norms and institutions for governance of international migration at the global, regional, and national levels.  MacArthur funding will concentrate on four sub-themes: 1) principles, norms, and standards; 2) institutions; 3) data; and 4) national policy.  Grantmaking in this area will be aimed at raising the profile of global migration issues on national and international agendas, helping to develop norms and standards for the effective governance of migration, facilitating the inclusion of civil society voices in policy deliberations at the national and international levels, and disseminating migration research to policymakers at various levels of government.

Migration and development
The Foundation will seek to foster better understandings and policy-relevant analyses of the relationship between the movement of people and economic development in sending and receiving countries. 

Under the broad rubric of migration and development, the Foundation will concentrate primarily on three main channels through which the global movement of people affects the economies of sending countries and receiving countries: 1) worker remittances; 2) labor mobility and concomitant brain drain (and “brain gain”);  and 3) diaspora networks.  In addition to examining migration from an international perspective, synergies are sought in MacArthur’s focus countries of Nigeria, Mexico, Russia, and India. 

Re-conceptualizing global human mobility 
The Foundation will also support a limited number of projects aimed at re-examining current ways of thinking about global human mobility.  This includes work that re-evaluates the distinction between migration and other forms of population movement, and that offers new ways of conceptualizing the social, cultural, economic, political and/or security dimensions of global human mobility.

Funding
To pursue the goals of the Initiative on Global Migration and Human Mobility, the Foundation provides support to nonprofit organizations, including research institutes and universities. Grants are awarded for research and policy studies, dissemination and related activities in the strategy areas listed above. The Foundation is particularly interested in supporting projects that reflect diverse national, institutional, professional, and cultural perspectives on global migration.

An organization wishing to approach the Foundation may submit a letter of inquiry informing the Foundation of the proposed project. The format for these letters can be found in the section How to Apply. Based on this information, the Foundation may invite proposals from prospective projects and organizations.

If you have further questions or would like additional information, please email us.