Mediterranean Migration and the Labour Markets ― Policies for Growth and Social Development in the Mediterranean Area

This book is focused on the relevant issues within the framework of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. The depth and the extension of the current political crisis in the area have changed the perspectives within which Euro-Mediterranean integration policy has been conceived and implemented. The book provides the grounds for developing new patterns of analysis and addressing policy guidelines which are able to respond to the dramatic challenges that Mediterranean regions are facing. In a fragile and conflicting environment, in which economic and political variables are strictly interrelated and reinforce each other, only a multidisciplinary approach is able to depict in a general framework the structural determinants of migration: territorial and social imbalances, climate change, unemployment, weak institutions, poor governance, lack of efficient redistributive policies. Each chapter proposes innovative and multifaceted analyses of the socio-economic situation in the area. They also signpost that North-South imbalances still persist inside the basin, and the world economic crisis has deepened social, intergenerational and gender inequalities. These inequalities cross all territories both nationally and internationally and affect the living conditions of large segments of the population in Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries. To bridge these gaps it is necessary to strengthen territorial cohesion, reduce income gaps, and improve the access of marginal areas to basic infrastructure. To achieve these long term goals, an inclusive development model must be built, able to ensure the same opportunities of education and work to young people and women.

Eugenia Ferragina is a senior researcher at the Institute of Studies on Mediterranean Societies (ISSM) of the Italian National Research Council (CNR).