MIPEX: from a European index, to an international database

MIPEX aims to represent a measure that can easily compare countries in order to benchmark integration progress and measure a country’s policies against a normative standard. As such, it provides both a descriptive and normative measure of the degree to which a country has policies that support the integration of migrants into their society. MIPEX originated in Europe in 2004 and initially covered all 15 Member states of the EU. Its last edition (2015) include 38 countries, of which several non-European countries. MIPEX has received substantial media attention and has been used in policy discussions and in applied, as well as, fundamental research. However, the index suffers from several methodological weaknesses. MIPEX does not have a stable group of coordinators nor are the lines of responsibility for the different partners transparent. Furthermore, the scoring on indicators is subjective and arbitrary. Lastly, findings and interpretations of the index must be done with caution.