Demographic Perspectives on Migration in the 21st Century

Wittgenstein Centre Conference 2025

19 - 21 November 2025, Vienna, Austria

Migration is a highly debated yet divisive topic in today’s public and policy discourse. In low fertility societies, migration is the main driver of population change and is essential for maintaining a stable labour force. Although it is often presented in simplistic terms, migration is a complex phenomenon shaped by the interplay of multiple drivers and barriers, making it difficult to analyse and predict. Local and global crises, including extreme events driven by climate change, can trigger large-scale mobility both within and across borders.

Demographers have contributed significantly to measuring migration, assessing the contribution of immigrants to population dynamics, and studying population heterogeneity amidst increasingly complex and rapidly shifting migration patterns. Considerable advances have also been made in understanding the differences in migrants’ demographic behaviour, how these evolve as they integrate into host societies, and how life transitions interact with the migration process. Demographic projections and scenarios are essential tools for assessing the long-term implications for future population dynamics, labour markets and socio-cultural diversity, providing important insights for evidence-based policymaking. Much of this research has focused on the destination countries, while implications of emigration in developing regions remain less explored. Likewise, the experiences and challenges of those who lack the means to migrate and remain immobile have received limited attention, despite significant challenges to their livelihoods and well-being.

The Wittgenstein Centre Conference on “Demographic Perspectives on Migration in the 21^st Century” invites scholars from around the world to explore these critical intersections, and to foster discussions on the demographic drivers of migration and the profound demographic transformations it sets in motion in both origin and destination societies. We welcome research from various disciplines, including but not limited to demography, economics, sociology, geography, and environmental sciences. Submissions should focus on current and forward-looking analyses, methodological innovations and modelling of migration as well as comparative research investigating demographic outcomes of different groups of migrants in both origin and destination societies. Topics include but are not limited to:

• Novel methods for estimating and forecasting migration
• Migration and (subnational) population change
• Life course transitions and migration
• Comparative studies of immigrants’ demographic behaviour
• Climate and environmental migration, and immobility
• Demographic and labour force outcomes of migration processes

Please submit

• a short abstract (250–300 words) and
• an extended abstract (2–5 pages) or the full paper.

The short abstracts will appear on the conference website if accepted.

Please make sure your extended abstract includes the title, full name(s), affiliation(s) and e-mail address(es) of each author.

online submission
 

Isabella Buber-Ennser (VID/Austrian Academy of Sciences)
Roman Hoffmann (IIASA)
Michaela Potančoková (IIASA)
Claudius Ströhle (IIASA)
Dilek Yildiz (IIASA)

For any questions regarding the conference, please contact conference.vid(at)oeaw.ac.at