The Migration Research Leaders’ Syndicate was established by IOM in early 2017, comprising senior migration researchers from around the world, to support the development of the Global Compact for Migration. The Syndicate has 36 members with diverse geographic origins, thereby enabling perspectives from traditional origin, destination and transit countries, and it was designed as a policy-focused interdisciplinary group and includes researchers from a range of disciplines including law, geography, economics, demography, international relations, sociology and political science. It served as a framework and space to enable leading members of research and policy practitioner spheres to contribute their knowledge and ideas to the Global Compact process.

On the eve of the Intergovernmental Conference to formally adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, scheduled to take place in Marrakech on 10–11 December, this special issue examines a specific aspect of the implementation of the Global Compact for Migration: that of migration research and analysis. While  acknowledging that migration research output has significantly increased in volume and diversity globally, as outlined in the IOM World Migration Report 2018 (Chapter 4), the natural starting point for an examination of this issue in the context of the Global Compact and international migration governance more broadly is the Migration Research Leaders’ Syndicate. 

This issue presents three articles on how migration research and analysis can contribute to the implementation of the Global Compact, as well as short pieces on critical migration and displacement topics, written by Syndicate members, which were previously published in partnership with the World Economic Forum’s online Agenda platform.