Forty six students meet in Turin for a two-week-long International Summer School on Migration. This year the focus of the summer school is on economic, legal and social aspects of immigration flows within the EU. The ETF is one of the patrons of the school along with the International Labour Office and the University of Turin.

Serena Boccardo, 25, from Lecce in the southern Italian region of Puglia, is one of the participants. She studies international management at Turin University and came to learn more about the impact of migration on business.

‘It’s very difficult to find Italian workers to do the hard work in agriculture and construction in the region where I come from, so migrant workers are in high demand,’ says Ms Boccardo. ‘We simply cannot manage without them.’

According to Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office, there were 32.5 million foreigners living in the 27 Member States in 2010. This corresponded to 6.5% of the total population.

The majority of foreigners, 20.2 million, were third-country nationals i.e., citizens of non-EU countries, while the remaining 12.3 million were citizens of other Member States.

The summer school is organised jointly by the United Nations (International Labour Organization and United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute), the University of Turin and the ETF, and sponsored by other local and international organisations.

In 2011, the ETF launched a second major study on migration. More than 13,000 people from Armenia, Georgia and Morocco are taking part in a wide-ranging survey designed to increase knowledge about the cause and effect of migration.

‘People who come to our country often set up their own small businesses, they have incomes, they pay taxes,’ says Ms Boccardo. ‘But they also share their culture making us more open and more educated about the world.’

More about the international school on migration