Central and Eastern Europe must address a new phenomenon: it is now a place of immigration. How is the region responding?

Central and Eastern Europe is increasingly a place of immigration as well as emigration – of returning migrants, of increasingly dynamic movement by EU citizens, and of non-EU economic migrants and refugees. 

The arrival of larger numbers of immigrants into the CEE region presents challenges to infrastructure, labour markets and social dynamics. Our panellists will draw on their own research carried out in Poland, Romania and Croatia to examine the impact of the social and economic capital introduced by these incoming peoples – and the political, economic and social responses of the receiving countries. In doing so, they will also unpack some of the widespread assumptions and problems around how we talk about, and conceptualise, migration and peoples.

Remus Anghel is Director of Migration Studies Center, University of Babeş-Bolyai.

Michal Garapich is based at the University of Roehampton.

Caroline Hornstein Tomić is from the Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Croatia.

Inta Mieriņa is from the University of Latvia, and the Director of the Centre for Diaspora and Migration Research.

20:20 Visions: conversations on the future of democracy is a series of online discussions on current challenges to democracy faced by Central and Eastern Europe, hosted by LSE IDEAS and the Ratiu Forum.

LSE IDEAS (@lseideas) is LSE's foreign policy think tank. We connect academic knowledge of diplomacy and strategy with the people who use it.