'We don't know nearly enough about migration'
In the current issue of the scientific journal Science, which was published today, Frans Willeken, migration expert at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, together with three further experts on migration, summarizes in a review article the current state of knowledge. The article appears shortly before the first World Humanitarian Summit, which has been organized by the United Nations and will take place May 23–24, 2016 in Istanbul, Turkey. The summary paints a rather sobering picture. On the one hand, it demonstrates that the knowledge base for the management and governance of migration flows is limited because the necessary data are lacking. On the other hand, it makes clear that this lack of data has allowed a false perception of the extent of current migrations to arise.