The Faculty of Sociology cordially invites you to the following research seminar jointly organised with the AMU Doctoral School of Social Sciences. The event will be held on 8 May at 11:00 a.m. in a hybrid format: in Room 107 of Building D on the Ogrody Campus and also on MS Teams. The lecture entitled "Migrations, demography and Work in a 'new' immigration country" will be given by prof Asher Daniel Colombo from the University of Bologna.
Today, in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Malta and Greece, the incidence of the foreign population is clearly comparable to that of the more traditional European reception countries. Only forty years ago, however, the foreign population in these five southern European countries was decidedly modest. In Italy, the migration balance with foreign countries has become positive since the 1970s, inverting a secular trend. The presentation will show that this change is only a segment of a centuries-long trend that has occurred both at the macro level (World and European) and the meso level (social organization of immigration). This trend has affected not only Italy, but the whole continent, and is currently underway for some years now in Eastern European countries too.
However, after the migration boom at the beginning of the 21st century, a sudden and sharp decline was observed in the following years of crisis (2008-2012). The presentation focuses on two main processes. First, it describes seventy years of Italian migrations, from the 1950s to date, systematically distinguishing the Centre and North from Southern Italy, and connecting them with the migratory history of previous decades. It shows how the ‘stop and go’ of migrations can be interpreted in the light of the pull factors determined by structural changes in demography and in the labour market. Secondly, it identifies the persistent and structural peculiarities that have shaped the foreign population in Italy, building a model very different from that of central and northern Europe. The last part of the presentation will be devoted to the depiction of only some of the main characteristics of the European divide in the patterns of inclusion of immigrants.
