Speech of Thanos Maroukis, researcher of the ELIAMEP Migration Team, in the Hellenic Parliament

On the 30th of March 2011 Dr Thanos Maroukis, researcher of the ELIAMEP Migration Team,  gave a speech on the current situation of irregular migration in Greece during the meeting of the Special Standing Parliamentary Committee for Monitoring the Social Security System on the theme of ‘Irregular Migration and Repercussions on the Social Security System’. His speech began with a categorisation and a population estimate of irregular migrants currently residing in Greece. Then, based on the conclusions of the relevant research programs undertaken by the ELIAMEP Migration Team, he spoke about the problems associated with the categories of irregular immigrants in question (such as loss of legal residence status, growth of undeclared work) and the effects they may have on the social security system (such as a drastic reduction of social security contributions). He concluded with a set of policy recommendations on irregular migration, which revolved around two axes:  avoiding the loss of legality (and contributions) of many legally residing migrants and managing more effectively the more recent inflows of irregular migrants. The burden of irregular immigrants on the country’s public health services, the size of the informal economy and undeclared work and the reasons for maintaining the regularity of immigrants were the main points raised by Members of the Parliament in the discussion that followed. You can watch the complete meeting of the committee here.

Participation in international networks

ELIAMEP (Prof. Anna Triandafyllidou and Ms Marina Nikolova) have become the national coordinators for Greece at the EU Integration Web Site. The EU integration web site development project is coordinated by the Migration Policy Group (MPG) in Brussels.

Prof. Anna Triandafyllidou has also been appointed the Greek SOPEMI Correspondent at the OECD, for the International Migration Outlook

Irregular Migration

New book!

Triandafyllidou, A. and Maroukis, T. (2011) Migrant Smuggling. Irregular Migration from Asia and Africa to Europe, London: Palgrave, forthcoming.

This book surveys the phenomenon of migrant smuggling across the Mediterranean. It looks at the routes of irregular migration from sub-Saharan Africa to Spain and Italy. It meticulously analyses the phenomenon of migrant smuggling with a focus on the routes that lead from Africa and Asia via Turkey to Greece. The book questions to what extent migrant smuggling is a business or indeed a social process enmeshed in origin and transit countries’ social networks.

Anna Triandafyllidou has just published an ELIAMEP Thesis on Seasonal Migration in Europe.

ELIAMEP’s migration research team has started a new project in the field of irregular migration and fundamental rights. This project is funded by the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) and focuses on the Treatment of Irregular Migrants at the EU Borders. The ELIAMEP team concentrates on the Greek Turkish borders and is coordinated by Dr. Thanos Maroukis.

The team has also recently completed the FRIM project, a European study of irregular migrants and their access to fundamental rights. The study covers all 27 EU member states and a wide range of issues including working and living conditions, including access to education, health, and housing. ELIAMEP’s research team has coordinated the Case Study on Irregular Migrant Domestic Workers in the EU and the fundamental rights challenges that they face. The Comparative Report on the general study and on the Domestic Work case study will be launched in spring 2011.

During this past year, the ELIAMEP team has continued its work on irregular migration. The web site of the CLANDESTINO research project on irregular migration, which was completed in November 2009 continues to be regularly updated (see also the CLANDESTINO database). In addition, our latest publication on Irregular Migration in Europe explores Myths and Realities of the much discussed but under-researched phenomenon of irregular migration in Europe, and was published by Ashgate in May 2010.

Integration and Multiculturalism

The ELIAMEP team is starting in April 2011 a new project on the integration of intra EU migrants into their places of destination. The MOVEACT project compares the processes of social and political integration of leisure-movers (e.g. Germans or Brits moving to southern Europe for life style reasons) vs. economic migrants (e.g. Romanians and Bulgarians migrating to find better life and employment prospects).

New books!

Muslims in 21st Century Europe. Structural and Cultural Perspectives (Triandafyllidou, A. ed., 2010)

European Multiculturalism(s) (Triandafyllidou, A. Modood, T. and  Meer, N., ed., 2011) forthcoming by Edinburgh University Press (to appear in fall 2011).

European Multiculturalism(s) draws from research undertaken within the EMILIE research project which was completed in November 2009. EMILIE investigated the challenges that migration-related cultural and religious diversity raise in nine EU countries. For more visit the EMILIE website.

New book in Greek!

The ELIAMEP migration research team has just published a book on Migration in 21st Century Greece (Triandafyllidou, A. and Maroukis, T. ed, 2010, Kritiki, in Greek) with chapters by Francesca Broersma, Ruby Gropas, Daria Lazarescu, Michaela Maroufof, and Marina Nikolova.