Why are people migrating to Europe? What is the effect of undocumented migration? Should we welcome migrants?

These are all common concerns for Malta and in order to help answer them Professor Stefano Zamagni will deliver a lecture on ‘The Political Economy of Undocumented Migration’.

Zamagni is Professor of Economics at the University of Bologna and he has vast experience as a respected academic and advisor in the field of migration. While many are fearful and alarmed by the phenomenon of undocumented migration, we do not generally know enough about the true economic and political outcomes of undocumented migration.

Zamagni would argue that we must firstly understand that migrants are often undocumented and criminalised by restrictive European visa and transport practices, which make it impossible for genuine refugees to reach a safe country through legal channels. In the absence of these legal channels, and with the help of human traffickers, refugees are forced into undocumented means of migration.

The Benjamin Tonna Lecture 2008 by Prof. Zamagni will be held on Monday, 24 March at 7pm at the Hotel Phoenicia, Floriana. All are invited.