Migration in Europe: Trends and Changes, with Alessandra Venturini

The Moynihan Institute’s Center for European Studies presents Alessandra Venturini.

Venturini will survey the large changes in recent migration patterns involving Europe in terms of their most prominent characteristics, such as their direction, size, and reason.

The characteristics of migration are crucial to understand the role played by migrants inside destination countries, including the extent of their integration. Though such roles vary by country, in general, negative stereotypes involving wages, employment and costs to the welfare state are not supported by empirical findings.

Among wider concerns over migration, recent waves of asylum seekers in particular have created friction inside the EU.  The European legislation that covers the demand for asylum, along with the varying degrees of perceived cultural and geographic proximity that new arrivals have with different European countries, hinders various states’ abilities to find a solution that is both humane and efficient.

Alessandra Venturini is a full professor of economics, holds the Jean Monnet Chair in European Migration Studies, and is director of the Interdisciplinary Diploma in Migration Studies at the University of Torino. From 2004-2011, she was the deputy director of the CARIM project at the European University Institute (EUI). From 2012-2017, she was the founder and deputy director of the Migration Policy Centre (MPC) at the EUI in Florence. Currently, Venturini is a European Commission expert on migration; co-chair of the G-20 Migration task force; fellow at the IZA, CHILD and FIERI; and a member of DIVCULT-IMISCOE executive board.