Politiche migratorie e reti etniche: un intreccio da costruire?

The essay presents the principal trends in migrations policies adopted in different OECD countries (block policies for structural needs, selective policies and brain drain processes) underlining, for each of them, the aspects of contradiction. The Author tries to demonstrate how a lot of the apparent failures of migration policies depend of the fact that the official aims of them often does not correspond to the latent one. In fact, the empirical phenomenology of migration rarely coincides with that represented by the policies that pretend to control it. At the centre of this plot of contradictions there are the ethnic networks, the role of which in structuring migration processes and in addressing insertion in society and in labour market is too often undervalued by policies. It is also stressed another problematic feature of immigration policies, that is the low finalisation to a circular process between economic inclusion and social integration, with relevant consequences on both aspects (increase of irregular work, temporary immigration, discrimination, etc.). The principal problem is recognised in an absence of a strategic vision of the policies that aim to create an integrated society and to carry on economic programs and social measures at the same time. The capacity of the society to recognise the link between immigrant labour and local development and competitiveness plans is estimated as the key for success policies.