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In this introductory chapter, we discuss the concept of “crisis migration” and its relevance to understanding the transformation of migratory flows within Europe as well as the transformation of migration and integration policies in the European Union. This introduction also presents the main issues discussed in this book and briefly introduces each of the chapters that compose this volume. In this chapter, we also underscore the different economic and political context in which this new Southern European migration is occurring in comparison with previous waves from the same area. In particular, we point out that successive enlargements of the EU and their associated migration waves have eroded the support of political elites for the principle of free movement within Northern EU Member States. This changing socio-political context has triggered different reactions among political elites towards these new flows in both sending and receiving countries.

First as migrant workers and later as European citizens with freedom of movement rights, Southern Europeans have established migratory routes to the more robust economies in Northern Europe. The Great Recession revives South-North mobility at a time when member states politically challenge and actively reduce freedom of movement rights. This chapter tracks down the evolution of freedom of movement into a regional mobility regime unique in the world and documents its retrenchment in the context of the crisis. The chapter argues that it is the mobility of Eastern European freemovers that triggered the restrictive wave, it has a more dramatic effect on Southern Europeans. This happens because the retrenchment comes at a time when they most use and most need these rights and because Southern Europeans have been socialised and experienced Europe as a continent of free mobility. Finally, the chapter posits that the loss of rights of rights and narrative change make freedom of movement increasingly similar with the regime for international migrants.

The profound economic crisis affecting Greece since 2010 has pushed many Greek citizens and third-country nationals to emigrate. The reversal of Greece’s status to a sending country has evoked parallels with the mass-scale postwar migration to Northern Europe. Still, a closer inspection shows that the skills, migratory paths and numbers of recent migrants are quantitatively and qualitatively different from those of post-war migration. Meanwhile, elite discourse around new migration has mostly been anchored to the debates for/against austerity and no targeted policies have been developed to facilitate the trajectories or return of recent migrants.

The financial and economic international crisis of 2008 aggravated, if anything, the political and economic instability Italy has been struggling with at least since the early 1990s. Italy has steadily had a positive net migration since 1974, thus becoming a country of immigration. Yet there have always been relatively significant numbers of people leaving the country, up to the so-called (“new mobility”) of the 2000s–2010s, publicly described as a recurrence of past mass emigration and increasingly linked with the effect of the crisis. The chapter describes in detail the socio-demographic profile of the Italian emigrants and their main European destinations since the 2000s, relying on Italian data, collected by the ministries of the Interior, Foreign Affairs and Labor, the National statistical office (ISTAT). Data are critically assessed against the available statistical sources from the top European destination countries. The analysis then focuses on the public discourse concerning the most recent outflows and the policy responses to them. In particular, the chapter considers the questions of how current emigration intertwines with the recent labour market reforms, by which young people have access almost exclusively to insecure, highly-flexible, low-paid jobs and whether the hegemonic narrative focusing on the “brain drain” is consistent with the data on the human capital of those who have left and might leave.

During the last two centuries, Portugal has witnessed continuous migration flows. Using data from different sources (both from the destination countries and from Portugal), we will show that over the past 30 years Portugal never stopped being a country of emigration and that, in recent times, these outflows have become more diversified in terms both of destination countries and the profiles of the emigrants. Without neglecting emigration flows before 2008, particular attention will be given to emigration flows that developed after the start of the economic crisis. We will show that current Portuguese emigration is not exclusively due to the economic crisis, but also due to the structural characteristics of migration flows, linked to migration networks from the past and the dependence on different migration systems. In the second part, we will reflect on both the relation of the Portuguese state to its emigrant communities, and the current political debates on the recent increase in emigration flows, and their connection to the economic crisis.

Spain is one of the EU countries most affected by the economic crisis and its deleterious impact on the labour market. With unemployment at record levels and specially affecting the young, men and foreign nationals, it is no surprise that emigration has increased significantly. Thus, after being a country of emigration and then attracting large inflows of migrants, Spain’s migratory balance has become negative again. Nevertheless, there is little clarity as to how important these new outflows are numerically and their main characteristics, something that is reflected in the policy responses and public debate. To help throw light on this, the current chapter first reviews the main official statistics in order to ascertain how many people are leaving, where and who they are. Although in absolute numbers current outflows do not reflect the severity of the socioeconomic context, emigration is on the rise and affects both Spaniards and non-natives. However, there are differences in the sociodemographic characteristics and main destinations of both groups. Second, the chapter argues that policy responses have been almost absent and the public debate polarized along ideological lines. While certain political parties and media denounce these flows as economically motivated and alert about the negative consequences, the government and others portray the phenomenon as mainly affecting return migration and young people in search of new experiences.

Despite the fact that the global financial crisis has affected Belgium’s economic performance, the country has continued to be an attractive destination for migrants. Recently, however, there has been a dramatic change in migrant flows to Belgium, as a result of two phenomena. First and foremost, the country has experienced large inflows of post-accession migration from Central and Eastern European citizens. Second, 40 years after the end of the guest worker programmes, the economic crisis reactivated migration from Southern Europe. One important consequence of the economic crisis and the arrival of Central and Eastern European migrants has been the growing scepticism that has developed in Belgium towards the freedom of circulation. This has led the authorities to implement specific policies aimed at discouraging further migration of low-skilled EU migrants, who are deemed undesirable. In this chapter, we analyse a specific policy consisting of the removal of residence permits from EU jobseekers who claim social security benefits in Belgium. This policy has affected both Central and Eastern European as well as new Southern European EU migrants.Examining the mobilization of different organizations, we then show that—while they are numerically fewer—new Southern European immigrants are in a better position than other new immigrants in Belgium to challenge receiving country policies that target them.

France fared relatively well at the start of the current economic crisis, but has experienced low economic growth and high unemployment rates in the recent years. As a result it has been a less popular destination with Southern Europeans and EU migrants in general in search of economic opportunities. Although their numbers have increased and represent a growing proportion of recent flows to France, they remain low compared to numbers observed in Germany and the UK. Despite this statistical reality, EU mobility and more generally the role of the EU in economic and social policy have been at the forefront of debates in France since the start of the 2000s, thus well before the start of the crisis. These debates have focused on two populations – the Roma and posted workers – with both groups being portrayed as threats to the French welfare state. Although posted workers are not migrants, according to official EU definitions, their characteristics and experiences are similar to other groups of temporary migrant workers. Southern Europeans account for an increasing number of posted workers, and although they have not been the primary nationalities targeted in discussions concerning this issue, the debates and policy changes introduced in the recent years concern them as well. Moreover, we argue that the focusing of political debates on other populations in France has contributed to the relative invisibility of Southern European immigrants in this country.

This chapter examines the post-2007 Southern European migration to Germany, arguing that this highly recruited and sought after migration has served to consolidate Germany’s status as an immigration country. This migration flow has some parallels to the post-war recruitment of , or guest workers, although it differs strongly in skill level – today’s migration is more highly-skilled than the post-war migration. The recruitment is both top-down and bottom-up, with the Federal Employment Agency, regional offices, trade associations and employers themselves all recruiting skilled Southern Europeans. The migration is seen in Germany as solving the current , or lack of skilled workers, resulting from the emerging demographic challenges. Unlikepost-war recruitment, which was intended to be temporary, Germany hopes that today’s migrants will remain.

Whilst the Europeanisation of migration into the United Kingdom began in the 1990s, intra-European flows reshaped migration patterns, and only became a major political issue following the EU enlargement in 2004. The UK’s opening up to the new member states was seen as a means of reorienting immigration for less skilled jobs from third country nationals to Eastern Europeans. However, less noticed was the concurrent growing immigration of Southern Europeans. With the deepening effects of the economic crisis and welfare cuts since 2010, the numbers of Italians and Spanish migrants registered for work have risen sharply. Today the UK is the first destination country for young, and often tertiary educated, Southern European migrants. Many of these migrants seem to be working in low skilled jobs in the hospitality, retail and construction sectors, although others have managed to find jobs commensurate with their education and training. This chapter presents an overview of the recent large-scale southern-European migration to the UK and, through an original analysis of the most recent official statistics, explores the socio-economic profile of these migrants. It also provides a discussion of the political and policy context within which these flows have taken place, such as the growth of anti-immigration sentiments in the mainstream political discourse, often conflated with a criticism of the EU system of free-movement. This process is epitomized by the electoral successes of the ‘UK Independence Party’ which acted as one of the catalysts for the 'Brexit' referendum of June 2016.