Editorial

Having witnessed two Eastern enlargements in a short span of time, it is somehow intriguing to look at the evolution of the European migration space in South-Eastern Europe (SEE). Therefore a deep intellectual curiosity was once more the rationale behind the idea, in autumn 2009, to issue a call for papers for this Special issue on migration and mobility of the Romanian Journal of European Studies (RJES) titled “South-Eastern Europe and the European Migration System: East-West Mobility in Flux”. The intricacy of the migration phenomena affecting the SEE region and its close and historical relations with the European Union and Russia represented other inspiring motives for this scientific journey. A number of theoretical questions came to the surface all the same in relation to the historical links between bordering regions, past and present ethnic conflicts, large diasporas of SEE citizens in western European countries, different migration typologies and last but not least the promises of future EU accession. How to relate these social and political phenomena into a constructive approach for the readership? The selected research questions included in the call for papers were bounded by comparative motives and characterised by the same dynamic understanding of the evolving European migration system. Either if we talk about a single European migration system or several European migration systems, South Eastern Europe cannot be thought in isolation but as part of that enlarging borders and ongoing free movement of persons that globalisation, the EU visa liberalisation process and the ease of transport and communication are facilitating and hopefully making possible and equitable for all in a future to come.