ABSTRACT
The migrant flows of the Mediterranean Sea currently represent a serious threat for both the European Union and its Mediterranean partners: they weaken both the social cohesiveness and the decision-making ability of the EU’s 27 Member States and the socio-economic conditions of the countries of the south-eastern shores of the sea. This is not the first time that the area has faced such a threat, but the current situation is different from that emerging between the 1950s and the 1980s because the structure of the Mediterranean migration system has turned out to be more complex and articulated with respect to the traditional one-directional flow of people from sending to receiving countries.
