Within the ever-changing global map of migrations, Southern Europe has come to occupy a pivotal place: formerly a region of mass emigration overseas and to Northern Europe; now, since the 1980s, a region of mass immigration. The migrants come from many source areas - North and Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. As Europe struggles to control immigration from the developing world, the EU’s southern flank is perceived as the weak link of “Fortress Europe’.

With a balanced and detailed coverage of the situation in Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece, this book examines the many facets of Southern Europe’s new status as a region of large-scale immigration. Amongst the topics covered are the diverse roles played by immigrants in Southern European labour markets; issues of social and spatial exclusion; migration and gender relations; the generally slow evolution of policies of control, management and integration of immigrants; and the wider strategic concerns of security, trade and geopolitics.