SEESOX diaspora researcher Manolis Pratsinakis together with Russell King, Carmen Leon Himmelstine and Caterina Mazzilli from the University of Sussex published a paper in the Journal International Migration on the motivations and plans of the recent Greek, Italian and Spanish migrants in London. According to the paper, already since the 1990s several young South Europeans have been arriving to London attracted by the dynamic labour market and cultural radiance of the city but also pushed by unfavorable conditions in the labor markets of their countries of origin. The Eurozone crisis, along with austerity politics and their sociopolitical consequences, critically intensified migration rates. But did they also signify a rupture in terms of the motivations, experiences and aspirations of the migrants?
Drawing on in-depth interviews with migrants of different educational levels from Greece, Italy and Spain the paper discerns three migrant categories that differentiate in terms of the influence that the Eurozone crisis has had on their migration decisions and practices. However and notwithstanding those differences, it was found that post‐materialist motivations and pro‐migration dispositions prevail among the “crisis‐migrants”. Migration is seen and experienced as a step forward, rather than a disruptive force, signalling a positive message in defence of intra‐EU free mobility. Yet at times of neoliberal deregulation and economic and political uncertainty, aspirations for socio‐economic stability and settlement are also of growing importance, questioning mobility as the normative way of contemporary life.
You can access the paper here