From end-2007 to end-2008 the OECD International Futures Programme conducted a project on “The Future of International Migration to OECD Countries”. The project comprised a series of preparatory meetings and workshops with interested stakeholders from government, international organisations, business, foundations and the research community (see Annex A). It generated a rich set of papers which explored the factors driving international migration to 2030, both from an OECD country perspective and from a developing and emerging economy viewpoint, and which was supplemented by contributions from academic experts focussing on developments in the main non-OECD regions.

This opening chapter provides an overview of this extensive body of work, summarising the main findings of the project and offering regional insights from papers which, for reasons of space, could not be published separately in this volume.