After 50 years of research and two major research programmes on migration in Switzerland – the NRP 39 Migration and Intercultural Relations and the NCCR on the move – this special issue reflects on the knowledge production, mainly in Switzerland, in this important domain of sociology. What type of research has been produced by sociologists in this field? According to which epistemologies? What public and political impact has this research had? What open questions remain, and in what direction is the sociology of migration likely to move in the future?