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Alfonso Giordano is Professor of Political and Economic Geography at the LUISS University and at the Niccolò Cusano University in Rome. In addition, he is director of the “Anna Lindh Chair in Euro-Mediterranean Studies” at the University of Salerno, managing director at the European Centre for International Affairs in Brussels and head of international relations at the Italian Geographical Society in Rome. He has been an affiliate researcher at the Institute of European Studies, Free University of Brussels, and visiting research fellow at the “Economic and Social Cohesion Laboratory” of the European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science. Mr. Giordano worked as scientific expert at the Permanent Representation of Italy to the European Union and served at the Council of the European Union. In addition, he has been a national expert in the Research Group on “Options for the Greater Middle East” coordinated by the Institute for Security Studies of the European Union in Paris. His main fields of research concern international migration and the interactions between demographic dynamics and geopolitical implications.
Free Movement, Border Control and Asylum in Europe: Geopolitics of Italy in the European Migration Policy Framework
The creation of the Schengen area has modified the political geography of migration with important implications on for countries around the world. On one hand, the Schengen area established the first supranational border in the history of Europe; on the other hand, it obliged a small group of countries to guard the new border and to manage the refugee flows. In this context, Italy has a key role to play, but the policies that have been implemented in Italy and other E.U nations since the ’80s have revealed a lack of long-term vision. This is occurring in a context characterized by the absence of an E.U. migration policy and the selfish attitude shown by some non-Mediterranean European countries.
