Alessio D’Angelo, L’immigrazione latinoamericana in Europa e in Italia. Spunti di analisi statistico-demografica

The aim of this paper is to present a statistical and demographic overview of the Latin American immigrants in Europe and a more detailed examination of the case of Italy. Over the last few years Latin American immigration – once concerning almost exclusively the United States of America – has reached a certain statistical importance also in Europe and has experienced an outstanding rise in some Mediterranean countries, particularly Spain. Factors such as the cultural and linguistic closeness, the strengthening of the ancient colonial ties, a general good acceptance from the countries of arrival, together with the well-known “migration chains” dynamics make a further increase of the flows highly probable. Generally the Latin American population in Europe shows high participation in the labour force, is mostly young and highly feminized (also because of a concentration in specific work sectors). In addition to taking active part in the labour market of the countries of arrival, Latin American migrants play an important role in the countries of origin, thanks to the substantial remittances they send. As far as Italy is concerned, the Latin Americans are an increasingly significant component of the foreign population, although they represent less than 10% of its total. Particularly concentrated in the Central and North-Western regions, they are nonetheless settled throughout the country and show a distinct heterogeneity in their characteristics.

Daniel La Parra Casado, Miguel A. Mateo Pérez, La migración ecuatoriana a España desde la visión de los familiares de los migrantes

Push and pull theories about migration processes generally do not take into account subjective components in their framework of analysis. The aim of this essay is to analyse Ecuadorians migrating to Spain from a transnational approach. The exploratory research focuses on the interactions between the individual, the household and the macro-social levels through the social discourse of relatives of Ecuadorian migrants. The analysis of interviews is useful to describe migration project motivations, transnational households characteristics and social inclusion determinants.

Alberto Acosta, Ecuador: oportunidades y amenazas económicas de la emigración

The articles underpins the positive and negative effects of massive flows originating from Ecuador during the last decade, with nearly two and a half million citizens leaving the country. The author shows the crucial role of migrants in sustaining the “dollarization” of the economy through remittances and the narrow connection between debt crisis and migration. This exodus from the country gives birth to a transnational family, whose choices and practices often reside in representations and myths about the success of migration.

Luca Queirolo Palmas, Oltre la doppia assenza. Percezioni di cittadinanza fra gli ecuadoriani di Genova

The present article, based on the results of a quantitative research, illustrates the conditions of Ecuadorian migrants in Genoa, focusing in particular on their citizenship perceptions. Citizenship is assumed following three dimensions: juridical (the option for naturalisation), political and participative (the political rights claim and the inclusion in an urban network of associations), and an activation dimension (the disposition to use forms of voice in order to react to discrimination). The analysis underpins the main variables that can explain differences between subjects in their relations to citizenship: from gender to cultural capital, from temporalities of migration to the forms of sociability, from the vision of the future to the family patterns. The thesis of Sayad on double absence of migrants is discussed here; the contribution suggests the emergence of new and extended forms of presence in which the political rights claim process and the practices of voice are progressively disconnected from the ambition to enter in the juridical domain of citizenship.

Marisol Patiño S., Blanca Pesántez, La migración internacional: relatada e interpretada por los jóvenes en el país de origen y de destino

The article explores the youth perceptions and representations on migration, both in the origin and destination country. Also cultural practices, such as social events, dancing, use of public space, changing patterns of households, youth associations and organizations, are taken into account. Data were originate by two surveys conducted in Ecuador and in Spain, within the framework of a binational programme managed by the University of Cuenca and the University of Alicante.

César Germaná, Una aproximación a la migración internacional calificada en el Perú

International migration is one of the most relevant phenomena in the contemporary world. In Peru, the exodus of almost three million people uncovers the extremely painful social, economic, political and cultural dysfunctions that the country has passed through in the last twenty-five years. The essay discusses the migration of professionals and technicians, outlining the causes and the consequences of the skilled labour migration for Peru. The importance of the problem has recently become more evident; nonetheless available information are scarce and dispersed. The author organizes the existing data and foresee future trends. He analyses some characteristics in the world and in Peru to explain the emigration of important sectors of the population. What emerges is the radical reorganization of the Peruvian society in the last twenty-five years, that has left a country characterized by precariousness and qualified it as a transitional society. Finally, the essay examines the impact of the skilled labour migration for the Peruvian society in the near future.

Susana Novick, Argentina: país receptor? Aproximación a un fenómeno migratorio reciente

This paper discusses a complex and contemporary phenomenon: the emigration from Argentina mainly to Europe. It starts summarizing population policies, demographic dynamics across the last 30 years – especially the evolution of migration flows – and social-economic developments in Latin America. The paper also focuses on recent demographic  trends in the European Union, and the existing connections with Latin-american migration flows. With regard to Argentinean experience of migration, this article examines: a) a selected bibliography – from 1950 to date –; b) the mass media  peculiar approach; and c) state policies designed to solve the “problem”. In addition, exploratory current research results are commented upon. To conclude, it is argued that the Argentine demographic situation, the development model in force since the middle of the 1970s and the impact of the recent migration flows toward the developed countries are strongly interconnected.

Vincent Ferry, Piero-D. Galloro, Raúl Morales la Mura, L’immigration chilienne en Lorraine (1973-2004)

This article is about the presence of Chilean refugees in Lorraine from the time of their departure to the present. The study hinges on two phases of their stay, i.e. before and after Pinochet’s dictatorship. The paper addresses the issues of these people’s trajectories, their sociological profiles before and after their arrival in France, the conditions of their arrival, their migratory journeys and their intergenera- tional social mobility. It aims at examining the individual and collective positioning of these refugees, as well as the identity processes at work in relation to both French and Chilian societies.

Elson L.S. Pires, Bernadete Oliveira, Eliseu Savério Sposito, Samira Peduti Kahil, Dinâmicas territoriais e novas formas das emigrações brasileiras no início do século XXI

The articles focuses on Brazilian migration in the last ten years with nearly 2 million people leaving the country and remittances reaching 1% of GDP. The Brazilian experience shows the combination between immigration flows (especially from Latin America, withing the framework of Mercosur regulating the free circulation of workers), and emigration flows (with a growing importance of Europe as a new destination). The authors discuss the effect of migration on development, transnational practices, the use of remittances, and the reproduction of social networks.

Marita Rampazi, La cittadinanza europea: appartenenza e solidarietà in prospettiva cosmopolitica

The European Convention, when preparing the Constitution for an enlarged Europe, had to translate into legal and political praxis the new concept of post-national, cosmopolitan oriented citizenship, a concept which emerged in the debate of the 1990s. Modern culture established the citizen’s status upon a model of solidarity based on likeness. It refers to those belonging to the same national community, defined by a real or alleged, cultural and historical homogeneity. It is now necessary to see whether the conditions to create new forms of civic solidarity exist, as to merge through dialogue the principles of similarity and difference. It is an issue that concerns the future of democracy, not just in Europe, but in the world, since globalization has produced global changes. The paper analyzes those changes, highlighting opportunities and risks. Many myths of the past are now put to test when reviewing the principles of public discourse and citizen’s responsibility in a multicultural prospective. Amongst others, the paper criticizes the wrong, because anti-historical, conviction that the identity of nation states are based on memories. Lastly, the paper illustrates the definition of European citizenship within the project of the Constitution to emphasize its positive or negative aspects.