International Workshop: Migration and Informality in Central and Eastern Europe (University of Lund)
University of Lund 26-27 March 2018
Traditionally seen as “exporting” migrants to Western Europe and North America, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), along with the former USSR ones, have recently become a “migration hotspot“ due to the improved economic conditions. Hence, the region has witnessed an increasing amount of immigration from people with either low qualifications, no legal right to work or stay or simply missing the skills to quickly integrate into local job markets. A number of studies have explored how and why public authorities failed to adequately manage labour migration flows, which led to the emergence of large informal migrant labour markets. However, the existing research focus on the relationship between migration flows and informality in Latin American, African and Southern European contexts, whereas there has little been scholarly investigation of these issues in the CEE context.
In this light, newly-established research network MICEE seeks to enquire into the link between migration and informality. It aims to unveil new patterns and tendencies in CEE to contribute to academic and policy debates on migration governance in the post-socialist context. The two-day workshop in Lund brought together MICEE members to discuss connections among various research contributions and theorise the relationship between migratory flows and informal practices to consolidate a sub-field of informality studies and contribute to a broader understanding of informal practices in CEE.