The Romanian Journal of European Studies No.7-8/2009 - special issue on migration and mobility
SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE AND THE EUROPEAN MIGRATION SYSTEM. EAST-WEST MOBILITY IN FLUX
Guest Editor: Dr. Paolo RUSPINI
Purpose of this special issue on migration of the Romanian Journal of European Studies (RJES) is to look at the ongoing transformations of the European migration system in relation to the European integration processes involving South-Eastern Europe.
The 2004 European enlargement and its completion with the Romania and Bulgaria accession in 2007 reshaped the European migration space while contributing to a substantial increase of East-West mobility. On the one hand, the granting of free movement to the new members from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the ease of communication and transportation facilitated these transformations in the migration
realm allowing different types of mobility inside the European continent. On the other hand, the new enlarged borders demarcated the EU polity both in the East and in the South by widening the gap between the included and excluded members.
The European migration system includes now the eight CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004 as well two South-Eastern European (SEE) countries, Romania and Bulgaria, which acceded in 2007. The long-standing EU candidacy of Croatia and Turkey along with the more recent from Macedonia as well as the pending accession requests from
other Western Balkan countries, bring further attention to South-Eastern Europe and its specificities in term of migration and asylum flows as a result of the collapse of the former Yugoslavia, the ethnic conflicts and borders reshaping which took place in the region starting from the 1990s.
Pending issues in the European policy making processes are also related to the countries which, for the time being, are not EU candidate but they are old SEE neighbours as Ukraine or Moldova. They represent the new EU external borders in the East and South-East of the continent and pose several migration related challenges in view of their geopolitical role and strategic position in between the EU and Russia.
East-West mobility will change again in a future to come because of economic, demographic and policy factors as the reshaping of the Schengen area, the ongoing visa liberalisation involving several SEE countries and their progressive accession to the EU. The current financial crisis is then concurring in sparking off multifaceted return migration flows that require further investigation.
Return migration certainly falls into the post-enlargement most interesting migration typologies. Other concurrent typologies frame the European migration space both in the East and in the South. The new Schengen borders generate circular, transit and irregular flows. The lack of coordination between countries in applying policy and
legislative instruments for the governance of these flows - for instance, the absence of consultation mechanisms for the adoption of immigrant regularisations or the coercive use of one time prescription like the expulsion orders - are just examples which bring to the surface the urgent need of more coherence between the national and
supranational level and a rights based approach in migration policy-making.
Thanks also to the EU enlargement processes, the unidirectional perspective of some migration analyses leaves room for investigation into migration patterns which include East-West, East-East, and West-East typologies. The resulting impact of these patterns require tailored policies and pertinent legislation re-approaching in a real
and effective governance of migration old and new EU members, non-EU members, accession countries and so far neglected EU neighbours.
The RJES would especially welcome contributions related to the above topics and the following themes:
- Theoretical questions related to the European migration system and South-Eastern Europe
How to frame in analytical terms the transformations in direction and magnitude of migration affecting the European continent? Can we possibly talk about a single "European migration system" by comprising which countries and region? Or is it still more appropriate to think of several "European migration subsystems" to whom South Eastern Europe belong to?
- New and old typologies of migration flows and their conceptualisation
Irregular and transit, circular and return migration: which policy responses for which type of flows? Forced migrants and IDPs in SEE: which policy for which sustainability? Transnational patterns of migration in between East and West: which are the features of the SEE migrant Diaspora and returnees in the European countries of destination and countries of origin?
- The migration patterns and integration processes of the CEE and SEE countries in comparison
How to relate the recent South-Eastern European migration experience
with that of other Central and Eastern European countries? Does a common framework for comparison exist in terms of characteristics and potential of migration flows from the region? What SEE countries can learn from the CEE process of acquisition of the acquis communautaire in migration?
- The EU external borders and migration through the SEE region
What is the impact of the EU border reshaping on the SEE candidate and neighbouring countries? Which is the extent of the migration imbalances, irregular flows, smuggling and human trafficking at the EU threshold?
- Symmetries and asymmetries of the EU immigration policy with particular reference to the SEE region
What is the impact of the EU immigration policy in relation to the SEE migration and asylum patterns? How to overcome the EU "institutional isomorphism" ? Which are the pertinent policy solutions for the migration challenges and specificities of the SEE region?
Deadline and paper requirements
Unpublished manuscripts are welcomed from a variety of academic disciplines related to migration, mobility and European integration and adopting different methodologies.
Up to 12 original papers will be selected and included in the double issue of the Romanian Journal of European Studies (RJES) n.7-8/2009 to be published in the first semester of 2010. Papers should include an abstract of 500 words (max) that clearly states the research question, methodology as well as the sources of comparative data.
Papers should be written in English and be around 8000 words. Papers should also conform to the RJES editorial policy:
Papers should be submitted by 15 December 2009. Decision will be announced by the guest editor directly by mid of January, 2010.
Further information and list of accepted papers/authors – available
via web at: http://www.migratie.ro and
http://romanian.journal.googlepages.com
Please kindly send your papers to the following email addresses:
Email address: Paolo Ruspini
Attn: Dr. Paolo RUSPINI, Guest Editor
Subject:
The author(s) should add a short resume (professional CV, European standard, mentioning relevant publication on migration and mobility), along with up to 10 lines of a short own-presentation on a separate file or at the end of the article (to be included in the authors' list of the printed journal and on the web materials, if the paper is accepted). The editors would request a recent photo (jpg file) of each
contributor of the articles, but the photo is not binding.
As the editors will create an on-line version for all accepted papers, adding relevant information about the authors (please see
http://romanian.journal.googlepages.com for the previous issue of the journal, RJES no.5-6/2007) – the would-be contributors are requested to clearly state the following text at the begin of the first page of the article: "The Editors/Guest Editor may use (or cannot use) my
contact data, my short presentation and my picture (if the case) both in the printed publication/ on-line publication and in all advertorial material they use to promote the journal".
Note:
Neither the guest editor and the editorial team nor the authors are paid for the publication of the journal. The authors keep the copyright for the version of the paper included in the journal, they may republish/improve the paper later on, but they have obligation to mention The Romanian Journal of European Studies No.7- as the first publication. The on-line version of each paper (PDF files) will be freely distributed on the web: the journal is posted on free websites and included in open library which allow free download, for a wider dissemination of the scientific information. The authors are encouraged to freely post their papers / the whole journal on theirs personal / professional / institutional webpage.
The printed issues are sent to major university libraries and research centre both from the region and from USA, Japan or Western Europe. For more information about the printed issues, the authors may contact directly the Publishing House of the West University of Timiºoara (Editura Universitãþii de Vest, Universitatea de Vest din Timiºoara; 4, Bd. Vasile Pârvan, 300223 Timiºoara, Timiº, România - www.uvt.ro).
About the Guest Editor
Dr. Paolo RUSPINI
Paolo Ruspini (PhD, Milan) is Senior researcher at the Faculty of Communication Sciences of the University of Lugano (USI) since February 2008 as well as Associate Fellow at the Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations (CRER) of the University of Warwick since March 2001. A political scientist, he has been researching issues of
international and European migration and integration since 1997. Dr Ruspini uses a comparative approach to migration with frequent policy and qualitative analyses. He is an active member of some of the most important European research networks regarding international migration and social cohesion as well as being advisor for national and international institutions. He combines research activities with
routine lectures in a number of universities and international institutions. Besides a significant number of papers which he contributed to international conferences, he is also the author of various publications on migration. To contact him, please mail to paolo.ruspini@ migratie. ro
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