In order to promote a common understanding of key concepts and institutions, the EMN Glossary aims to improve the comparability of information about international migration and asylum, by providing definitions and the most relevant terms in the official languages of the (Member) States. The definitions and terms included in the Glossary draw on a variety of sources, but primarily on the legislation of the EU asylum and immigration acquis as well as existing UN and other international standards.

The current (April 2017) online version of the Glossary (version 3.0) was updated in December 2015 with the addition of 29 new terms reflecting the then most recent European policy documents on migration and asylum. Almost 250 amendments of the then existing terms were also made (e.g. correcting or updating translations and amending and updating definitions). The work to update the Glossary is done by a permanent EMN working group.

Go to the EMN Glossary & Thesaurus (external website).

Glossary in norwegian (Excel) (excel, 395 kB)

Glossary with norwegian terms and notes (Excel) (excel, 315 kB)

Forord og beskrivelse av ordboken (only in norwegian) (pdf, 244 kB)