On March 16-17, 2017, the VII Grushin Sociological Conference “Towards the Future. Forecasting in Sociological Research”, organized by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) Foundation together with the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) under the President of the Russian Federation.

In the context of the growth of global population mobility, as well as the migration crisis in European countries, the main issues that require in-depth analysis and prompt solutions in the field of migration management, according to the organizers of the conference, are: assessment of the allowable volumes of the influx of migrants, taking into account the factor of ethno-cultural distance; forecasting changes in the system of socio-cultural codes of the host society; forecasting social conflicts on the basis of "migrantophobia" and the formation of effective management of migration processes. In order to discuss these issues at the conference, experts in their speeches touched upon such topics as the impact of illegal migration on the formation of new threats in Europe and Russia, the study of the sociological aspects of labour migration in the EU countries, as well as a discussion of the current migration situation in the Russian Federation and other.

The representative of IOM Moscow took part in the work of the section of the conference “Population Mobility: Development Potential or a Threat to Stability” and shared the results of the project on development of Migration Governance Index, implemented by IOM in cooperation with the analytical department of the Economist magazine. Within the framework of the project, migration is considered as one of the factors of sustainable development and improvement of the well-being of both the host society and the migrants themselves and their countries of origin, and the effectiveness of migration processes management is assessed by calculating a number of indicators in five areas of management: a) institutional capacity; b) migrants' rights and integration; c) safe and orderly migration; d) labour migration; e) regional and international cooperation and partnership. The project will be able to serve as a global database of best practice examples and concrete ideas in the field of institutional design and improvement of migration policy. The Index will be an assessment indicator of the achievement of one of the objectives of the Global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development on the implementation of responsible migration policy, both at the global and national levels.