"METOIKOS – Circular Migration Patterns in Southern and Central Eastern Europe: Challenges and Opportunities for Migrants and Policy Makers”

Project aims:

•    Understanding better the new forms that circular migration takes in the Euro- Mediterranean region and in Central Eastern Europe and the EU neighbourhood area
•    Identify the special needs of circular migrants as regards Integration and Re-integration.
•    Identify the challenges and opportunities for circular migrants and their families, for their source and destination countries
•    Contribute to the development of appropriate policies for managing circular migration in particular as regards migrant integration in the destination country and re-integration in the source country during their circular mobility phase and/or after return.

Activities

In order to achieve the project aims we will engage into intensive fieldwork to study circular migration processes bottom up, will consult policy makers, practitioners and other stakeholders and circular migrants themselves. We will organise 3 Regional Workshops and will produce a Guide for Policy Makers on Circular Migration and (re-)Integration. We will thus address directly a target group of 300-500 users that will act as multipliers for our study and policy output. The Guide for Policy Makers will be made available in 11 European languages and will be disseminated to at least 10,000 people and organisations across Europe via email and via our project web site. We will also organise targeted online discussion on circular migration with a view to raising awareness on the challenges and advantages of circular mobility in the wider area of the EU Neighbourhood and the Euro-Mediterranean region.

Six pairs of countries have been selected for the study: Greece and Albania, Italy and Albania, Spain and Morocco, Italy and Morocco, Hungary and Ukraine, Poland and Ukraine. In all six pairs, the two countries involved are neighbours and have experienced different forms of circular migration. They have been selected because of their relevance in terms of economic immigration (Albania, Ukraine and Morocco are important source countries of economic immigrants), their geographical proximity with the destination countries and because of recent research suggesting that circular migration does take place in these countries albeit assuming different forms in different labour market contexts and with regard to different types of migrants (low, semi or high skilled).

Partners involved in the project:

•    European University Institute (Florence)
•    London Metropolitan University
•    Real Instituto Elcano (Madrid)
•    Centre for International Relations (Warsaw)
•    Central European University (Budapest)

Project is funded by the European Commission, Directorate-General Justice Freedom and Security within the European Fund for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals.