Italian scholars have increasingly discussed whether and how the ongoing economic recession has affected the employment of migrant workforce (Bonifazi & Marini 2013; Pastore, Salis & Villosio 2013; Reyneri, 2010). Most of the questions concern home-care for elderly people, which is, traditionally, an important source of employment for foreign women (Picchi 2012; Semenza 2012; Qualificare […]

The recent short victory of the ‘no’ to mass immigration in Switzerland raises several questions: How come a country with a successful economy says no to immigration? What are the implications of this vote beyond the issue of freedom of movement within the European Union? These were the questions posed by Professor Vincent Chetail, Director […]

The Status Quo and The State of Play Arguably, in Europe as elsewhere, ‘trafficking’ is still commonly understood as being about nasty, frequently male criminals who capture and enslave innocent women and children, usually for sex. Most of the time, the stories we hear are extreme, they’re the worst of the worst. The way the […]

Social remittances are ideas, know-how, norms, values, knowledge, behaviour, practices and skills that migrants bring home with them or that they send home from abroad. These can promote or deter development in home countries, (Levitt, 1998, 2001, and Levitt and Lamba-Nieves, 2011).  Levitt (2001) argues that social remittances are, in fact, more important than financial […]

In post-Soviet states the impact of migration and induced social risks (brain-drain, aging, depopulation, etc) are now a reality. Yet, little is known about the extent to which migration rhetoric has evolved and penetrated into the political party programs of European Union’s Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries– Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine–, and in Russia. […]