Leader: Corrado Bonifazi corrado.bonifazi@cnr.it
The population and its dynamics represent a central factor in economic and socio-cultural questions. The range of demographic structures and dynamics justify paying attention to these emerging problems, their causes and their consequences. The necessity to find an answer for the deriving issue of how to intervene and to govern future dynamics with a view to prevention requires the support of population studies. Furthermore, migration dynamics are becoming one of the key elements in the processes of evolution of Western societies, and not only. And this is happening at the supranational as well as national, regional and local levels. Lastly, phenomena such as population ageing, the transformations of gender and generational relations, the interconnections between emigration and immigration processes have a great impact on society. Hence, these aspects of the demographic structure are of significant interest for researchers and political decision-makers. This line of research aims to link these various aspects in order to build a single and overreaching interpretative framework and highlight the common elements.
The project outline sets out the topics of interest, covering all areas of demographic and migration studies. With regard to demographic themes, emphasis is given to the study of population dynamics at various territorial levels, owing to their consequences on regional planning and local policies.
With regard to the theme of migration, the following topics are investigated: migration dynamics at international level with a particular focus on the motivations, the aspirations and the migration decision-making processes; migration, integration and reception policies; the various aspects of foreign immigration in Italy; Italian emigration; domestic mobility; and urbanization trends. Studies are also conducted on the diasporas and the increase of qualitatively different perspectives in the study of human migration within the context of globalization and multiculturalism, by carrying out an historical reconstruction of the Greek diaspora and qualitative research of the second Hellenic generation in Italy.
The complexity of migration and demographic processes is addressed through quantitative and qualitative scientific analysis carried out by a multidisciplinary research team (demography, urban and labour sociology; geography and social anthropology).
Participants: Maria G. Caruso, Massimiliano Crisci, Stefano degli Uberti, Giuseppe Gesano, Frank Heins, Angela Paparusso, Andrea Pelliccia, Salvatore Strozza, Mattia Vitiello.
Research fellows: Daniele De Rocchi, Giacomo Panzeri, Antonio Sanguinetti.
Key words: population, demographic forecasts, migrations, mobility, diaspora, volunteer work, European migration policies.