Economic and Social Perspectives on European Migration

This book addresses a wide range of migration-related issues in the European context and examines the socioeconomic consequences of migratory flows throughout Europe, focusing on a number of emblematic European countries. The book is divided into three parts. The first part deals with the tension between migrants and their integration processes in the receiving country, which is deeply influenced by the attitude of the local population and the different approach to highly and less skilled immigrants. The second part analyses the impact of migration on the economic structure of the receiving country, while the third part explores the varying degree of immigrants’ socioeconomic integration in the country of destination. The book offers an essential interdisciplinary contribution to the issue of migration and provides readers with a better understanding of the effects that different forms of migration have had and will continue to exert on economic and social change in host countries. It also examines migration policy issues and builds on historical and empirical case studies with policy recommendations on labour market, integration and welfare policy issues. The book is addressed to a wide audience, including researchers, academics and students of economics, sociology, politics and history, as well as government/EU officials working on migration topics.

Introduction 1. European Agenda on Migration between progress and challenges: situational overview 2. Migrants in Europe: from a production factor to social actors PART I Immigrants and the labour market: employment opportunities and challenges 3. Hostility in times of labour shortage: controversial attitudes towards labour immigration in Hungary 4. Is talent divide a proper form with which to characterize contemporary migration flows? Evidence from the Portuguese emigration within the European Union PART II Immigrants: an economic resource or a burden? 5. An economic resource or a social problem? European institutions and migrants from the 1950s to the 1970s: the case of Belgium 6. Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs in Italy and England: the cases of Bologna and London 7. Immigration and sustainability of the pay-as-you-go social security system in Italy PART III Immigrant networks, well-being and education 8. Blood, buddies, banks: potential funding sources for starting a new business as perceived by Maghrebi, Filipino and Chinese immigrants in Italy 9. Mothering from afar: the subjective well-being of Eastern European migrants in Italy 10. Free or bounded? Migration, ethnicity, social background and educational choices in four European countries

Francesca Fauri is associate professor of Economic History at the Department of Economics of the University of Bologna, Italy. Debora Mantovani is associate professor of Sociology at the Department of Political and Social Science of the University of Bologna, Italy. Donatella Strangio is full professor of Economic History at the Department of Memotef of Sapienza University of Rome, Italy.