The realities that migrants are exposed to in receiving countries vary widely. But discrimination of one sort or another is an experience they all are confronted with. Often discrimination is a structural problem. Therefore, the different aspects fuelling discrimination especially against female, unqualified, and illegal migrants must be understood comprehensively in order for them to be efficiently countered.
- Jane Hardy examines the special relationship between Poland and the UK. She sees migration as a ‘revolving door’, a relationship of extensive traffic between East and West, highlighting that ‘deskilling’ and ‘gatekeeping’ negatively affect large numbers of Polish migrants.
- Research on female labour migrants has been generally neglected in the discourse of global labour migration. Eleonore Kofman and Parvati Raghuram refute the assumption that female migrants are unemployed because they do not have skills, tracing misconceptions of gender discrimination in employment against migrant women.
- Agnieszka Fihel analyses the trajectories of Polish migration to Western Europe finding that host countries determine their share of migrants with their immigration policy regulations. Also, reversed migration due to the global financial crisis depends on the economic situation of the host country.
- Wadim Strielkowski acknowledges many different reasons why Eastern Europeans migrate to Western Europe, prioritising psychological factors and fair financial reward, so called pull factors, as the most significant aspects.
- Since special skills and family reunions are increasingly the only legal way to enter Europe, people find themselves pushed to search for other ways. The journalist Antonio Cruz portrays three real life examples of illegal migrants and their experiences living in Belgium
