Adelina Miranda (a cura di), Circolazioni, sedentarizzazioni e transiti nell’area del Mediterraneo. Introduzione / Circulation, “sedentarization” and transit issues in the Mediterranean area. Introduction, pp. 771-785

Since the nineties, population movements around the Mediterranean area have assumed a new visibility on the international migratory scene. This issue of Studi Emigrazione proposes a number of essays that intend to deepen some aspects of these forms of circulation, “sedentarization” and transit adopting the point of view of the migrants who move along the southern and western parts of this region. These researches document the unstable delimitation existing between «migration in the Mediterranean» and «migration of the Mediterranean». They show that the boundaries among the categories of migrants, and of countries of emigration, immigration and transit are fluid and reversible; differences and similarities between new and old migratory flows, irregular and political migrations, circular and permanent movements are shifting. Moreover, these analyses critically question the map of migrations drawn with the contrast between the “south” as a space of emigration and the “north” as a space of immigration in mind. By taking a more careful look at the movements that connect the Mediterranean area with the Sub-saharian region and the countries of the Persian Gulf, these analyses emphasize the importance of «south-south» migrations, therefore contributing to a more articulated reflection on current mobilities.

Michel Peraldi, Ahlame Rahmi, Migrazioni marocchine, vecchi percorsi, nuove mete / Moroccan migrations: old routes, new destinations, pp. 787-800

The “paterismo”, as a vision that unites piety and stigmatization in a context of criminalization of migration flows, brings to the foreground the reflection on the irregular migrants moving toward Europe at the expense of an analysis of the plurality of forms and dynamics of circulation of people among Maghreb, Africa and Europe. The objective of this article is to show that in Morocco there is no longer only one form of migration, socially homogeneous and producing just one distinction –that between the sedentary population that has stayed in the country and the migrants – but there also are social segmentations and segregations reproduced by the migrant society itself. The migratory processes, the status of the people who go through them and the conditions of their social destiny, underline the subtle emergence of a logic of discrimination and a segmentation process. This social segmentation is, at the same time, active within the migratory process and comparable to the social segmentation already at work within the Moroccan society.

Sylvie Bredeloup, Transitare nel Sahara. Quando i migranti africani prolungano la durata del loro soggiorno / Transit through the Sahara. When African migrants extend the length of their stay, pp. 801-817

Transit migration is not a completely new phenomenon on the planet. However, what is unprecedented is that it is perceived and presented by some of the international experts as a new phenomenon. By re-affirming the temporary character of migration, these experts reintroduce the uncertainty principle in the migration processes and in this way they fuel the confusion between social marginality and temporal precariousness, and among illegality, crime and transit. Today, however, only a minority of sub-Saharian African migrants want to continue their journey toward Europe. Most of them want to settle permanently in the Maghreb countries.

William Berthomière, Israele. L’emergere “atipico” della mondializzazione migratoria nel Mediterraneo orientale / Israel: the emergence of an atypical process of globalization of international migrations in the Eastern Mediterranean region, pp. 818-836

International migration studies constitute one of the most interesting mirrors of the globalization process. Much research carried out in this field highlights the diversity of the social structures elaborated in the context of migration processes that become more and more complex. Even if this is not really a new phenomenon, the scale and volume of the migration flows are changing the social fabric of both the homelands and the host countries. In reference to the case of Israel, this article studies this new social phenomenon characterized by a combination of social factors based on internal dynamics and dynamics that originate from the process of globalization and are defined by the issue “global vs. local”. The figure of the new migrant that has emerged in these last years in Israel is the main object of the essay and offers the opportunity of a better understanding of the forms of “sedentarization” and settlement that the “all mobility” approach tend to hide.

Agnès Deboulet, Ethiopiennes, Philippines et Soudanais. Voisinages migrants et confrontation aux sociétés d’accueil au Liban / Ethiopians, Filipinos and Sudanese. Migrant neighborhoods and comparison with the host society in Lebanon?, pp. 837-852

More than many other countries in the Middle East, Lebanon is the epicenter of numerous migration flows that are partly connected to forced war displacements, ethnic cleansing, and the arrival of substantial groups of Armenian and Palestinian refugees. The feminization of migration and the massive presence of unmarried migrants constitute a peculiar characteristic of a migration system that by the end of the civil war has become more international. This article deals particularly with the crossed relations among labor markets, housing markets and sexual and ethnic segmentation. It points out especially the tension between migrant women who work from home and those women who choose to escape “captivity” and mistreatment endured while being under contract. This situation generates an encounter among these “runaway” women, vulnerable and without rights, migrant men whose labor situation is precarious, the residents of the irregular neighborhoods of Beirut as well as the shi’ites residents of these same neighborhoods. This new intercultural configuration opens the door to a new vision of cosmopolitism.

Jean-François Pérouse, Migrations, circulations et mobilités internationales à Istanbul / International migrations, circulation and mobility in Istanbul, pp. 853-871

The case of Istanbul located in the north-eastern edge of the Mediterranean and at the junction among various regions – which are quite different in terms of both life standards and political stability – looks interesting because it questions our categories of analysis since the local system mixes up places of origin, temporalities and profiles that are very diverse. A mega-city animated by complex flows that interact with each other, Istanbul witnesses the encounter among few officially registered foreigners, foreigners “with a suitcase”, invisible foreigners (undocumented workers and transient migrants) and internal migrants.

Sirin Dilli, Turkey: An Inventory of Migration Movements, pp. 873-892

In the opinion of the great majority of people in Western Europe Turkey is a country of emigration. This image is true and false at the same time. It is true because Turkey is a country that today has around 4 million emigrants who live abroad, of which 3.3 million in Western Europe (especially in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France). This image, however, reflects just a fragment of the whole picture. What most people forget or ignore is that Turkey has been and continues to be a country of immigration, besides being a transit country for migrants. This article offers a more comprehensive view of the history of Turkish migrations and explains the influence of these movements of people on the country.

M. Carolina Brandi, M. Girolama Caruso, Simone De Angelis, Simona Mastroluca, Gli immigrati ad alta qualificazione secondo il Censimento italiano del 2001: occupazione e sottoccupazione / Highly qualified immigrants according to the 2001 Italian population census: employment and sub-employment, pp. 893-926

This paper analyzes the population of foreign residents in Italy holding an university or tertiary educational qualification and the job performed by these skilled migrants, in order to verify the eventual presence of the “over-qualification” phenomenon. The data were gathered by ISTAT, in occasion of the 14th General Census of Inhabitants and Houses on 2001. These data show how the presence of skilled immigrants is more common than commonly believed. However, this remarkable amount of human resources is only partially employed, since less than one half of these people have a job corresponding to their qualification level. It turns out that the percentage of over-qualified workers is higher than the average among Italian citizens. Moreover, the penalization in the labor market of immigrants coming from a number of geographic areas and gender discrimination of immigrants in the field of highly qualified employment are also evident.

Stefania Rimoldi, Laura Terzera, Il Comportamento insediativo della popolazione straniera nel Italia meridionale / The settlement behaviour of the foreign population in Southern Italy, pp. 927-944

This study aims to describe the settling behaviour of the main ethnic groups of immigrants and to focus on the ways and the directions of their geographical spread, by means of the data drawn from a recent survey of foreigners (both legal and illegal) living in the Italian territory. To this purpose, it has been necessary to verify if (and in which measure) the phenomenon of the settling of immigrants in the provinces tends to concentrate and/or is affected by spatial autocorrelation. Then, once the settling models experienced by the various immigrant communities are detected, their links with the characteristics (e.g. the duration of their presence in the province and/or in Italy, the legal/illegal condition, the socio-economics peculiarities) of each ethnic group are underlined.

Gennaro Errichiello, Le donne arabo-musulmane immigrate. Background socio-culturale e ricerca nel casertano / Arabic-Moslen Immigrant Women. Socio-Cultural Background and Research in the Area of Caserta, pp. 945-966

Although in the cities of the Northern African countries, changes start to happen in the role of women in society: women go to work, women decide freely who to marry, and women have a higher level of education than men, in a context of migration, women often live segregated: they don’t attend the mosque to worship Allah (God), and they don’t perform Islamic rituals. But, in my ethnographic work in the mosque of San Marcellino, a little town near Caserta, the women have broken with the traditional norms of segregation and participate in the life of the Islamic community: they attend the mosque on Friday, they perform Islamic rituals and they play an important role in the integration of the Islamic community with the local social environment.

Silvia Lucciarini, I luoghi contano: immigrati e città in Europa e Stati Uniti / Location Counts: Immigrants and the City in Europe, and in the United States, pp. 967-980

The comparative study of immigrant settlements in Europe and in the US shows how urban structures have determined specific residential patterns and how immigration policies have influenced those dynamics. Nowadays immigration policies in Europe and in the US seem to converge, being both primarily focused on national security, with different outcomes in terms of residential choices by immigrants. Both European and American scenario shows how cities are more divided primarily, but not exclusively, by nationalities in the US and Northern Europe. Southern Europe shows instead a higher urban mixture even if concentration tendencies seem to increase in bigger metropolitan areas.

Vicente Llorent Bedmar, Famiglie marocchine immigrate e insediate in Spagna. Uno studio socio-educativo / Immigrant Moroccan Families Settled in Spain. A Socio-Educational Study, pp. 981-991

In recent years immigration has become one of Europe’s most urgent matters. For countries like Germany, Belgium, France, England, Italy, Sweden and, certainly, Spain, immigration constitutes a controversial reality. People worry about maintaining the standard of living and welfare of society. This brings about a new challenge that we must address from many perspectives: educational, political, health care, religious, civil. The immigrants’ arrival appears as one of the most relevant factors of recent Spanish history. Migration cannot be understood without bearing in mind the socio-economic context of our country. If we want to continue supporting our standard of living and economic progress, we need to reach a few demographic indexes that would be unobtainable without immigrations; therefore, immigration is indispensable and necessary for the well-being of Spanish society. In this article we deal with migrations from Morocco to Spain; we will analyze in concrete the family’s educational practices, because in spite of the geographical vicinity of our two countries, the mutual ignorance of our cultures is great. This state of affairs implies certain difficulties effecting the coexistence of both social groups.