Abstract
According to the latest UN report, 244 million people were living abroad in 2015, including nearly 20 million refugees. Beyond its burning topicality, revealing major tensions in our societies, the issue of international migration must be approached through serious methods that take into account the diversity of migratory phenomena and the questions they raise. In this field, more than any other, preconceived ideas circulate, sometimes impervious to the facts.
The Collège de France Assembly has therefore decided to create a Chair in Migrations and Societies, to be held by François Héran, Director of Research at INED, the French National Institute for Demographic Studies. "This creation not only recognizes the need to study these phenomena as scientifically as possible, but also highlights the interactions between Migrations and Societies: there are no societies without migrations, and migrations have a lasting impact on societies. My program does not pretend to settle all the questions on the place of immigration in society: it intends to ask them in a way that respects the facts.
