It has often been said that the Highlands and Islands' greatest export over the centuries has been their people, the hundreds of thousands who left the area, by choice or by force, to make their livelihoods far beyond their native land. In many locations this out-migration has been halted or even reversed, with people moving into the area for lifestyle or employment opportunities.

Now a new centre is to be established to study these migration movements, not simply for the Highlands and Islands but for Scotland as a whole. It will examine historical movements, but will also undertake research into current trends - looking into why people are leaving, or settling in individual areas. This will provide important information for policy making bodies.

Ionad Naiseanta na h-Imrich (the National Centre for Migration Studies) will be set up at Sabhal Mor Ostaig (SMO), the Gaelic college on the island of Skye. The college is part of the developing University of the Highlands and Islands Millennium Institute (UHI), and the move is being supported both by SMO itself and by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE). The Centre could lead to the creation of up to five new high-quality jobs within its first few years, with the potential for more employment opportunities in future.

There is no institution in Scotland currently involved in the type of teaching and research which the new centre intends to carry out.

The announcement on the establishment of the new Centre was made by Dr Hugh D. MacLennan, who carried out a six-month feasibility study into the viability and academic justification for such a facility. The announcement was made today (Thursday, 12 July, 2001) during the formal opening of the prestigious 'Emigrant Homecomings' conference now underway at the Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies at the University of Aberdeen, being attended by many of the world's leading authorities on migration studies.

Ionad Naiseanta na h-Imrich will enter a 'start-up' period during the remainder of this year and will begin work in earnest next year. The costs for this 'start-up' period have been set at £32,000 . This investment is being evenly split between SMO and HIE, with the funding for development in subsequent years to be identified during this time.

The Centre will operate in two main areas, historical research and contemporary studies. Its aims will include:

* Promoting academic research in the field of migration studies through its own activities, and in collaboration with other institutions;

* Making an effective contribution to the formation of policy initiatives relating to human mobility;

* Contributing to the understanding the causes and consequences of human mobility in terms of origin and destination;

* Disseminating knowledge through teaching, publications and research;

* Meeting the needs of the Scottish emigrant community world-wide by enabling people from other countries to learn about all aspects of the Scottish emigrant experience;

* Providing a forum for debate on issues relating to migration studies through seminars, lectures, broadcasting and electronic media;

* It will also make an important contribution to the development of Sabhal Mor Ostaig's academic reputation and development within the University of the Highlands and Islands Millennium Institute.

HIE chairman, Dr Jim Hunter, an authority on Highland history and the movement of its peoples, welcomed the announcement: "To some this might seem a dry, even dull topic - however there is now a huge, and still-growing interest world-wide in people's origins. Many people whose ancestors left the Highlands and Islands are now keen to trace their roots and to learn something about their background. It makes perfect sense that this Centre is to be located in the Highlands, an area which has seen the departure of so many people. It will also play its own part in bringing in new jobs and economic opportunity.

"I also welcome the fact that this Centre will not be wholly rooted in studies of the past. People are still moving into and away from the Highlands and Islands and I'm sure we could learn a great deal from an examination of contemporary migrations and if we had a better understanding of the reasons for this, it would help inform our thinking and policy-making."

The Emigration Homecomings conference is being addressed by one of the leading authorities on emigration from the Highlands, Eric Richards, Professor of History at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia. He said: "Migration remains one of the most critical issues in modern society. Yet movements of large numbers of people into and out of the UK are insufficiently understood or researched, past, present and future. The Highlands and Islands have great accumulated experience of all forms of migration and the region is now assimilating new trends in the movement of people, both inwards and outwards. The new Centre offers a very special vantage point to study migration in all its dimensions."

Dr Norman Gillies, college director at Sabhal Mor Ostaig, said: "We are now at an interesting stage in the development of Ionad Naiseanta na h-Imrich. We thank HIE for supporting both the feasibility stage and this start up period. It is also nice that the Centre launch will take place at the "Emigrant Homecomings" conference as its genesis was the "Celtic Cultures in an Emigrant Context" conference that we hosted here at Sabhal Mor along with Professor Tom Devine and the Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies in June 2000. The initiator of the idea was the now Minister of State at the Department of Trade and Industry, Brian Wilson MP, who addressed the conference delegates. It's great to see that idea now bearing fruit."