A global approach to the different forms of spatial mobility is one of the most promising research trends in migration studies. This approach is able to stress ties, relationships, similarities and dissimilarities between the different types of migration. Migration research at IRPPS move on this direction. The establishment of an Observatory on Italian migrants has the aim to use and improve the skills acquired in a field where IRPPS has an important tradition.
The complexity of Italian migrations already appears at a first glance of the main trends of the phenomenon. Thirty years ago Italy was yet one of the main emigration countries, while nowadays it is one of the most important destination of international migration flows.
A global approach allows to analyse all these aspects of Italian migration, avoiding to neglect some of these types of mobility. It has allowed to put the Italian case in the appropriate theoretical context, within the framework of European migrations and of the European migration system. New migration flows in Eastern and Central Europe and in the Balkans have been carefully considered. Attention has been devoted to study high skill migrations, and migrants integration in receiving societies. Size and characteristics of foreign immigration in Italy have been analysed as well as Italian emigration abroad. Field surveys have collected data on Italian attitudes and opinions towards immigration.
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