Toward unequal exchanges. The longer term integration of South Eastern Europe into global migration linkages since the 1950s

Tamas Kiss, Institute of Minority Studies, Cluj
Attila Melegh, Hungarian Demographic Research Institute

South Eastern Europe is one of the most interesting regions to study from the point of view of longer term development of integration into global migration matrices and flows. It seems that the region is being “emptied” in a longer run via producing large number of emigrants for other parts of Europe and North America, receiving immigrants mainly form within the region and in smaller numbers than emigrants and at the same time producing low fertility figures for longer periods. This may hinder the longer term development of the region as it is becoming a region with stable and massive unequal relationships toward other parts of the European Union and North America. The paper examines on the basis of longer term net migration, migration matrix and macroeconomic data how the regions has changed its integration into global migration flows in a longer run since the 1950s in order to see major macro level regularities.