Book excerpt: We’re pleased to welcome you to the Department of Political Science at the University of Bari “Aldo Moro” for the 7th Migration Conference. The conference is the largest scholarly gathering on migration with a global scope. Human mobility, economics, work, employment, integration, insecurity, diversity and minorities, as well as spatial patterns, culture, arts and legal and political aspects appear to be key areas in the current migration debates and research. Throughout the program of the Migration Conference you will find various key thematic areas covered in 598 presentations by 767 contributors coming from all around the world, from Australia to Canada, China to Colombia, Brazil to Korea, and South Africa to Norway. We are proud to bring together experts from universities, independent research organisations, governments, NGOs and the media. We are also proud to bring you opportunities to meet with some of the leading scholars in the field. This year invited speakers include Fiona B. Adamson, Markus Kotzur, Philip L. Martin, Karsten Paerregaard, Ferruccio Pastore, Martin Ruhs, Jeffrey H. Cohen, and Carlos Vargas Silva. Although the main language of the conference is English, this year we will have linguistic diversity as usual and there will be presentations in French, Italian, Spanish and Turkish. We have maintained over the years a frank and friendly environment where constructive criticism foster scholarship, while being nice improves networks and quality of the event. We hope to continue with this tradition and you will enjoy the Conference and Bari during your stay. We thank all participants, invited speakers and conference committees for their efforts and contribution. We also thank many colleagues who were interested in and submitted abstracts but could not make it this year. We are particularly grateful to hundreds of colleagues who served as reviewers and helped the selection process. We also thank to those colleagues who organised panels and agreed to chair parallel sessions over three days. We reserve our final thanks to the team of volunteers whose contributions have been essential to the success of the conference. In this regard, special thanks are reserved for our volunteers and team leaders Rosa, Alda, Franco, and Aldo from the University of Bari, Tuncay and Fatma from Regent’s University London, Fethiye from Namik Kemal University and Vildan from Galatasaray University, Ege from Middle East Technical University, Mehari from Regent’s University London, and Gizem from Transnational Press London. Our final thanks are reserved for the leaders of the University of Bari “Aldo Moro” and the Department of Political Science, President of Puglia Regional Administration and Mayor of City of Bari for hosting the Conference and for their generous support in enriching the Conference programme. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with us through the conference email ([email protected]). Ibrahim Sirkeci and Michela C. Pellicani The Migration Conference Chairs The Migration Conference 2019 The Migration Conference is a global venue for academics, policy makers, practitioners, students and everybody who is interested in intelligent debate and research informed discussions on human mobility and its impacts around the world. The Migration Conference 2019 is the 7th conference in the series and co-organised and hosted by the University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Italy and Transnational Press London. The Migration Conferences were launched at the Regent’s Centre for Transnational Studies in 2012 when the first large scale well attended international peer-reviewed conference with a focus on Turkish migration in Europe in Regent’s Park campus of Regent’s University London. The migration conferences have been attended by thousands of participants coming from all around the world in London (2012), London (2014), Prague (2015), Vienna (2016), Athens (2017), Lisbon (2018), and Bari (2019).