Transforming Migration Research: Insights from the Migration Platform Survey to inform an online research platform

As global migration is spurred to new highs by natural disasters, conflict, and economic need, migration research itself has grown at an increasing rate. Yet, many migration researchers come from a diverse range of subject matter fields, united by migrants as a key population of interest. Better support to connect these researchers to high-quality data, methods, literature, and potential collaborators could facilitate migration research and improve its quality.

To fill this gap, Aptima, Inc. and AidData, a research lab at William & Mary, seek to develop an online platform for migration research. In order to understand what support migration researchers need, AidData fielded the Migration Platform Survey (MPS) in mid-2024 to nearly 20,000 migration researchers identified through a review of the Scopus citation database. Nearly 2,000 responded, for a response rate of 9.2%—making this one of the largest survey of global migration researchers to date. We collected data on (1) what migration researchers see as key features of an online migration research platform, (2) their areas of research, (3) how they collaborate with other researchers, (4) their methodological approaches, (5) their future plans for research, and (6) barriers to their research efforts. This report makes recommendations on how to enhance migration research and will inform the development of an forthcoming migration research platform.