Second Meeting

Circular Migration Patterns in Southern and Central Eastern Europe:

Challenges and Opportunities for Migrants and Policy Makers

 

The second meeting of METOIKOS took place in Florence on 25-26 November 2010 hosted by the RSCAS, at the seminar room of Villa Malafrasca. The meeting brought together the METOIKOS team composed by Anna Triandafyllidou, Eda Gemi, Thanos Maroukis and Camilla Devitt from the EUI, Carmen Gonzalez Enriquez from the Real Instituto Elcano, Nick Mai from the London Metropolitan University, Katarzyna Gmaj from the Centre for International Relations in Warsaw, Ayse Caglar and Tibor Sillo from the Max Planck Institute in Gothingen. Ifigeneia Kokkali and Alessandra Bartolini from the EUI also participated in the meeting and contributed in the discussion. 

During this meeting the consortium discussed the types of circular migration identified through recently completed fieldwork in each pair of the countries studied. All in all, it was evident that circularity concerns legal seasonal agricultural workers in all pairs of countries. Another type of circular migrants are those with long-term stay permits that go back and forth between their country of origin and settlement country in order a) to invest their earnings either towards renovating their family home, building a new house/block of flats, opening a new business or investing in their own family business (usually in the agricultural sector), and b) to take up work back home when it arises (this is especially the case with work in the construction sector). Undocumented seasonal migrants working in agriculture and undocumented circular migrants working in the construction sector were also identified in the case study. High skill migrants and merchants involved in imports and exports are other cases of circular migration. 

As regards the factors obstructing circularity, it is evident that the existing restricted legal avenues for entry in the EU countries studied significantly limit the circular character of migratory movements. A preliminary discussion of the effects of the crisis on circular migration also took place during the meeting. A rise of irregular circular migration in certain pairs of countries and longer cycles of stay in the countries of origin are expected.

Next step in the METOIKOS project is the drafting of case study reports on Greece-Albania, Italy-Albania, Morocco-Italy, Spain-Morocco, Poland-Ukraine, and Hungary-Ukraine in the coming trimester. The drafting of a comparative report and the organisation of regional workshops in Rome, Athens, Warsaw and Madrid will follow in spring 2011.