Migration Policies in Europe: the way ahead

Starting from an analysis of EU migration policies before 2011, this work aims to understand how European countries managed the North Mediterranean’s situation after the events of Arab Spring, and which kinds of policies has been adopted by European countries. We focused in particular on Italy, as major Mediterranean destination country. Although the effect of migration following the uprisings was not that strong as announced by the mass media, as the main consequences happened in the region itself, the EU responded to the migratory movements from the south Mediterranean countries reactivating old positions, based on border controls and containment of migrants and refugees. Nevertheless, data showed that restrictive migration policies are not able to prevent irregular flows and control migration; on the contrary, they increase the likelihood of dying at border crossings and caused marginalization and episodes of racism in the hosting societies. Even the more liberal policies aimed at influencing the dimension and the directions of immigration fail their objective. For this reason, we argued that to adapt our societies to the challenges of migration, integration policies should be implemented. It will not only be reasonable and convenient for the receiving countries, but also more humanistic when migrants are considered