Mediterranean Europe: internal mobility and international migration

In the first few months of 2020, the health crisis linked to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic raised public awareness on the importance of different types of migratory flows. All of the three basic dimensions of mobility, namely immigration, internal migration and emigration, gave rise to serious issues as a consequence of the pandemic and forced governments to take exceptional measures to deal with them. This was especially true for Mediterranean European countries. In Mediterranean Europe emigration, immigration and internal migration co-exist alongside one another and are closely intertwined. Further, there are the flows of returning migrants (playing a decisive role in the context of the economic crisis) and emigration of foreigners or new citizens of the European union. The chapter advances a first research proposal: it is worth analysing in more detail internal migration regimes in a group of countries with common characteristics, linking them with migration to and from abroad.