Migrants land in Palermo. Lucio Gancio/Demotix. All Rights Reserved.
The thousands of migrants and refugees making their way to Europe today are, tragically, discussed mainly in terms of death rates, drownings, and possible responses. What is much less discussed is what happens to those that make it past the border guards and onto the European continent. Many such individuals join the ranks of Europe’s exploitable labour force and begin to work alongside their poor EU counterparts in many labour sectors such as agriculture. Their vulnerability, which is not sufficiently addressed by either European or national policies, derives in part from the new mobility regimes which mark current migratory patterns.
The economic crisis has significantly changed the composition of migrants moving to and within Europe. The lack of concrete and realistic opportunities has discouraged non-EU ‘economic’ migrants from making their way across the common external border, especially if their traditional country of destination has been strongly affected by the crisis. As a result, the main protagonists of the current migratory movements are refugees and EU citizens. The latter are predominantly Romanian citizens who have been ‘pushed out’ by the ever-widening gap between the cost of living and the average salary.
