Recent Trends and Major Issues in International Migration: Central and East European Perspectives

Abstract

Until the late 1980s Central and Eastern Europe was a region relatively isolated from the other parts of the world. Flows of people between the countries, even inside the region, were rather small and sporadic, due to administrative restrictions on foreign travel. Contrary to what was feared in the West around 1990, it has not been flooded by East Europeans newly equipped with the freedom of movement. Indeed, the out‐flow of groups such as ethnic minorities, political opponents, and elites, has diminished. Nevertheless, at least three very dramatic and partly unexpected migration movements have occurred in the region. First: an unprecedented intensification of international flows within the region. Second: an influx of people from outside the region. Third: westbound transit. These three phenomena have a direct and sometimes con‐siderable impact on the countries undergoing the migration flows, provoking in them particular political responses.