Russell King, Migration into Southern Europe: new trends and new patterns. Introduction

This special issue of Studi Emigrazione presents a collection of nine papers on a variety of new immigration phenomena in Southern Europe. Some of the papers refer to individual countries, even cities; others are comparative. Many of the papers are by young scholars and derive from their recent or ongoing doctoral field research in the region. And several articles are by authors who are, or have been, connected to the Sussex Centre for Migration Research and the Sussex European Institute, both part of the University of Sussex, UK. The methodological approaches range from overviews and interpretations of statistics and policy to ethnographic enquiry at the local level. Whilst not covering all aspects of the diverse migratory phenomenon in the region, the papers do collectively attempt to represent some of that diversity, both thematically and with respect to geographical coverage. After two overview papers (King and Ribas-Mateos; Baldwin-Edwards) which examine statistics, types and contexts of migration, and policy responses, the sequence of papers moves from Lisbon through Spain (Granada, Barcelona) to Italy and then Greece. Appropriately, given the strongly gendered nature of immigration into Southern Europe, two papers (Dietz and El-Shohoumi; Zontini) explicitly focus on the migration, family, work and intercultural experiences of women. And as the immigration into Southern Europe moves into its “mature” phase with children born and educated in the host society, so it is timely that one of the articles explicitly addresses the question of multicultural education (Grassilli). The urban geographical context receives specific attention in a detailed case-study on the spatial impact of immigrants in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (Fonseca). Moving to the Balkan end of Southern Europe, the final three papers examine three very different migratory episodes: the mass migration of the 1990s from Albania (King and Mai), the return of second-generation Greek-Americans to Greece (Christou), and the post-1990 resettlement of Pontian Greeks from the former Soviet Union (Keramida). This collection of papers cannot possibly claim to be the last word on new migration trends in Southern Europe. The articles represent a sample of research and documentation on a region whose migratory patterns are continuously evolving and changing. Not every country is covered: the first thorough research on Malta, Cyprus and Slovenia remains to be done. But one thing is clear: the countries of Southern Europe continue to provide nowadays, as they did in the past, one of the most fertile terrains for the study of human migration in all its richness and diversity of forms.

Russell King / Natalia Ribas-Mateos, Towards a diversity of migratory types and contexts in Southern Europe

This introductory paper sets the background for the special issue of the journal on Southern Europe by offering an overview and selective theorisation of recent trends of immigration into the region. The paper is in three parts. The first sketches the historical evolution of migration from and to the region: emigration overseas, emigration to Europe, return migration, and immigration. The major causes of the migration “turnaround” from mass emigration to large-scale immigration are detailed, but also, in the second part of the paper, the great diversity of types and forms of migration recently and currently affecting the region. In part three of the article recent immigration is conceptualised in terms of two explanatory frameworks, linked in turn to the informal economy and the weak welfare state; whilst in the conclusion the significance of the Southern European region is stressed in terms both of the global map of migration and of new typologies of mobility.

Martin Baldwin-Edwards, Semi-reluctant hosts: Southern Europe’s ambivalent response to immigration

The complexity and diversity of immigration into Southern Europe are examined, within the limits of available data, along with the estimated illegal immigrant presence and participation in the formal economy. Illegal migration and illegal residence appear as norms, although obscured by multiple legalisation efforts by Southern European states. Three main routes of migration into the Mediterranean Basin are identified, with a recent increase in the use of smugglers and traffickers and very low asylum applications as well as recognition rates. Immigrant integration is posited as a dichotomy between economic role and social marginalisation – both largely determined by the illegal or semi-legal status of the immigrants. Three subtopics are briefly examined: the criminality of immigrants, immigrant population densities and access to healthcare services. Finally, a comparative overview of government policy responses is presented, concluding with identification of broad policy failures. Some policy priorities for the future are suggested.

Maria Lucinda Fonseca, Immigration and spatial change: the Lisbon experience

The fast growth of labour immigration to Lisbon, as in other major Southern European metropolises, was mainly visible after the mid-1980s. Considering the new position of Lisbon as a city of immigration, this paper focuses on the processes of social and spatial change associated with the presence of immigrants and ethnic minorities. After a brief overview of the evolution and main features of immigrants and ethnic minorities living in Lisbon, the paper focuses on the interplay between immigrants and ethnic minorities on the one hand, and the socio-spatial reorganisation process that has been taking place in the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon on the other. Then, three case studies in areas with a high visibility of immigrants and ethnic minorities are presented to illustrate the role of immigrants in the construction of new urban landscapes, taking into consideration spatial, economic, social and cultural domains. Finally, some reflections on the kinds of adaptation that cities, and particularly Lisbon, have to go through to integrate larger and more diversified immigrant communities are presented.

Gunther Dietz / Nadia El-Shohoumi, “Door to door with our Muslim sisters”: intercultural and inter-religious conflicts in Granada, Spain

In the last fifteen years, Spain has experienced a remarkable increase in its immigrant population among which Maghrebin Muslims make up a significant percentage. Parallel to that a strong tendency to conversion to the Islamic religion has been observable in Andalusian cities like Granada and Cordoba since the end of the Franco regime. In the face of these two phenomena, anti-Islamic and anti-“Moorish” attitudes, which reflect different dimensions of discrimination, prevail in large sectors of the Spanish general public. These attitudes in fact are deeply-rooted and nothing else than historically transmitted stigmatisations of “the other”. Especially afflicted by this newly emerging “muslimophobia” is the Muslim woman, whose social role, in the opinion of the majority society, is reduced to motherhood and obedience to her husband, but who is becoming more and more an important protagonist in the process of forming a Muslim community. This ethnographic study addresses the largely unknown daily life-world of these Muslim female migrants living inside the secularising, but still mainly Catholic southern Spanish society. The paper analyses both the more general, often overlapping and mutually reinforcing sources and forms of citizenship-based, ethno-national and religiously motivated discrimination, and more specifically gender-related forms of exclusion. Such discrimination and exclusion comes both from the non-Muslim majority society and from within Muslim minority communities. Finally, these experiences of discriminatory practices are contrasted with official public definitions of and attitudes towards discrimination as well as with the awareness of ethno-religious discrimination and gender-based exclusion shown by non-governmental organisations and public institutions.

Elisabetta Zontini, Towards a comparative study of female migrants in Southern Europe: Filipino and Moroccan women in Bologna and Barcelona

This paper compares the experiences of Moroccan and Filipino women migrating to two Southern European cities, Bologna and Barcelona. Most of the literature dealing with female migration to Southern Europe focuses on women’s role and function in the local racialised and gendered labour markets. This paper argues against compartmentalising immigrant women’s productive and reproductive work and calls for gender-sensitive approaches to migration that seek to understand women’s migration in a more holistic way. The paper shows, on the one hand, how family, kinship and gender relations in the country of origin influence the migration of both Moroccan and Filipino women; on the other hand, it documents the different ways in which these relations change and get renegotiated through the migration process and in receiving countries. The empirical base of the research consists of 76 in-depth interviews, evenly divided between the cities and the two migrant nationalities, enabling multiple comparative perspectives to emerge. Use is also made of selected individual biographical accounts.

Mariagiulia Grassilli, Atzinganoi, mint tea and hip hop: (multi)cultural education in Bologna

Drawing from a larger project which compared “performances of multiculturalism” in Bologna and Barcelona, this paper concentrates on examples of (multi)cultural education in Bologna. After first setting the scene by a brief examination of the debates surrounding the “immigration issue” in Italy today, the focus of attention then narrows to the city of Bologna. Data on immigration to Bologna are presented, followed by a brief discussion of the cultural politics of immigration in the city. The empirical heart of the paper is an analysis of three specific events which were observed and interpreted, each one reflecting a different aspect of the role of multicultural, inter-ethnic dialogue within an educational setting. First, a party and concert to celebrate the graduation of the first Roma student at the University of Bologna allowed the normally marginalised culture of the Roma to reclaim the most prestigious educational–cultural space in the city: the University Alma Mater theatre of Santa Lucia. Second, a “Moroccan day” at a primary school was observed, an event facilitated by a cultural mediator and other helpers. Third, the Rosa Luxemburg secondary school became a stage for reclaiming a musical space, facilitated by local migrant-origin musicians, including the rap group Voce dei Muti giving “voice” to the frustrations of the immigrant condition in Italy. In general the immigrant voice is rarely heard in Italy, almost never appearing in the infinite reportage on the so-called “emergency” of immigration. These multicultural educational events concentrating on young people give hope for the future.

Russell King / Nicola Mai, Of myths and mirrors: interpretations of Albanian migration to Italy

Emigration from Albania since 1990 has been the most dramatic instance of post-Cold War East–West migration. Now, more than one in five Albanians lives abroad, mainly in Italy and Greece, and the first part of the paper presents statistical documentation on the evolution of the Albanian migration to Italy, including migrants’ regional distribution within the country. Eschewing simplistic mono-causal geographic, political or economic explanations of the Albanian mass migration, the remainder of the paper essays a more rounded analysis by setting the exodus to Italy within the nexus of political, economic, social and cultural events that were happening in each of the countries, and whose timing and interconnections are crucial in understanding the dynamics of this migration and its reception and interpretation. We focus particularly on the role of the Italian media in constructing a series of myths – about Italy (projected as the “promised land” by Italian television to Albania both before and after the demise of the communist regime), about Albania (constructed as a backward, exotic, chaotic country), and about Albanian immigrants (represented as “undesirables”, deviants and potential criminals). Above all, we analyse how Albania and Albanian immigrants in Italy have evolved as a pervasive “myth of the other”, against which Italy’s own self-identity as a modern, efficient European nation has been reconstructed. However, in a final ironic twist, it is also the case that Albanian immigrants are seen as present-day mirrors to Italy’s own developmental and migratory past.

Anastasia Christou, Greek-American return migration: constructions of identity and reconstructions of place

This paper is concerned with issues of identity, place and belongingness in narratives of return migration. It is based on the oral testimonies and written narratives of second-generation Greek-American return migrants who have moved to Greece, their parents’ country of origin. An important consideration in the analysis is the multiple interactions between place of origin and place of destination, network ties and global forces. The paper aims at understanding how these elements influence and shape return migrant behaviour and in particular to enlighten our understanding of return migration as a process that encompasses the combined notion of “place” and “identity” as the outcome of a continuous search for “home” and what this means. The objective is to examine not only the experience of return per se but primarily the meanings attached to this experience. Through this the article aims to develop a clearer understanding of the concepts of identity and place and how these internalisations are articulated in praxis. One of the challenges of this research is to reveal the extent to which returnees’ actions are reflective of conscious manifestations of individuals’ identity, their self-sense and their positionality of place, real and imagined.

Fani Keramida, “Repatriates” or “refugees” and other vexed questions: the resettlement of Pontian Greeks from the former Soviet Union in Greece and the politics of policy discourse

This paper aims to explore how different labels and discourses concerning the resettlement of Pontian Greeks from the former Soviet Union in Greece after 1990 are used by different actors in different situations and for different purposes. Firstly, it discusses two labels that are employed by Greek policy-makers and by representatives of Pontian associations to identify the newcomers from the former Soviet Union. The two contested labels in question are that of the “repatriate”, the official term used by the Greek state and most policy-makers, and that of the “refugee”, a term favoured by some representatives of Pontian associations. Then, drawing on ethnographic data collected through field-work in the region of Thrace (north-east Greece) where about 21,000 Pontian Greeks were resettled through the programme of a state-supported organisation, the paper explores the newcomers’ views and perceptions on these two controversial labels. Finally, the discussion revolves around discourses of policy-makers involved in the Pontian resettlement in Thrace, in order to shed more light on the ways in which some of these policy discourses are used in the pursuit of particular interests and policies, usually through fostering and justifying a relationship of dependency between the Pontian migrants and the organisation that was set up to aid their resettlement.