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IMISCOE is a European Commission-funded Network of Excellence of more than 350 scientists from various research institutes that specialise in migration and integration issues in Europe. These researchers, who come from all branches of the economic and social sciences, the humanities and law, implement an integrated, multidisciplinary and internationally comparative research program that focuses on Europe's migration and integration challenges.Within the program, existing research is integrated and new research lines are developed that involve issues crucial to European-level policy-making and provide a theory-based design to implement new research.The publication program of IMISCOE is based on five distinct publication profiles, designed to make its research and results available to scientists, policymakers and the public at large. High-quality manuscripts written by IMISCOE members, or in cooperation with IMISCOE All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Summary of thesisThe study examines issues surrounding the social incorporation of immigrants in Greece, focusing on a particular city, Thessaloniki, and on two migrant groups, Albanians and Bulgarians. The research is set within the debates about migration and globalisation, and more specifically within the regional context of Balkan transnational migration. The thesis is the outcome of fieldwork research that involved structured questionnaires, in-depth interviews, background sources and systematic observation. It addresses the factors shaping immigrants' lives through combined methodologies and an interdisciplinary approach that goes beyond oversimplifying accounts of exclusion-inclusion; rather, these are seen as dynamic processes connected to the wider social reality. The concept of incorporation is employed in order to analyse both the ways by which migrants organise their lives in the host society and the structural, institutional and cultural contexts that condition them. The analytical framework distinguishes between several interrelated modes of incorporation: social/political responses; labourmarket integration; living conditions and social space; coping strategies and community formation. A number of additional factors are also considered: the composition of the migrant populations; migratory patterns and dynamics; the role of social networks; issues of access; and questions of identity. The findings provide an empirical account of the immigrants' characteristics, uncovering a high degree of heterogeneity that unavoidably determines incorporation patterns. 'Immigrants' become a social category constructed on the basis of the exclusionary mechanisms: the restrictive immigration policy, the spread of xenophobic attitudes, and the par...

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This article discusses Chinese migrants’ incorporation in European cities and the relevance of the urban space. In particular, it focuses on the Chinatowns of London and Milan, beginning from two recent cases where their space has been contested. Alongside the different histories and contemporary patterns of Chinese migration and settlement and the varying policies and politics of immigration and integration in Britain and Italy, we bring the urban factor in our analysis. More specifically, we look at the political economy of the urban space and the role of Chinatown in the dynamics of urban restructuring in the two cities. We conclude by summarizing the key dimensions of comparison and by highlighting additional elements that are important in order to understand the multiple processes conditioning Chinese migrants’ incorporation in Europe, the peculiarities of Chinatown as a specific urban locale and the politics of contestation and protest involving immigrants in urban contexts. In that sense, the article examines different layers of explanation and builds a comparative analytical framework that goes beyond the limits of migration studies.