Due to South Tyrol’s history, concepts such as sense of belonging, linguistic diversity, minority rights, identity and territorial autonomy have always been considered particularly important. More recently, new challenges and opportunities have recently emerged with immigration from European and non-European countries. The fact that our society is thus characterised by rapidly growing diversity, value pluralism and complex relations calls for scientifically sound solutions to cope with these phenomena in an effective and peaceful manner.

Against this backdrop, several EURAC institutes with diverse areas of expertise have joined forces in order to explore local, national and international issues of diversity and migration from manifold complementary perspectives, i.e. those of law, political science, sociology, geography, linguistics and economics. Our aim is thus to jointly provide appropriate solutions for the management of diversity and migration which are developed through high-quality research and in close cooperation with various types of stakeholders, including policy-makers, businesses, civil society organisations, migrants and their organizations.