EMN Asylum and Migration Glossary

The EMN Asylum and Migration Glossary is primarily intended for government and public administration officials, policymakers, legislators, researchers, academics, interpreters, translators, journalists, and other professionals dealing with international migration in theory and practice. The aim of the glossary is to standardize the use of migration terms and their definitions in the EU. The preparation and updating of the glossary is coordinated by the European Commission in cooperation with EU Member States and other European countries involved in EMN activities. The Slovak Republic has been a member of the EMN working group on the preparation of the glossary since 2012.

The source of migration terms is mainly EU legislation and policies and international law, but increasingly also the external dimension of migration and EMN publications. In addition to the translation of the term itself, each entry also contains its definition, the source of the definition, synonyms or related, narrower and broader terms. The dictionary also offers added value in the form of additional notes that explain the European or national context in detail. Translations of entries in European languages are gradually being incorporated into IATE, the EU's terminology database.

The latest version of the dictionary can be found on the European Commission website. Entries are continuously added and updated, and you can search them alphabetically (by initial letter), thematically (by migration area) and full-text (within all terms, definitions, notes and synonyms).

You can also download the dictionary as a free mobile app for Android and iOS, which you can use even without an internet connection. In addition to English, the app can be switched to French, Finnish, Greek, Latvian, German, and Italian.

The dictionary is published in book form only sporadically when major updates are made. The latest tenth edition from 2025 can be downloaded as an interactive publication.