“Migratory Processes in Europe: evolution of the migratory interactions between the EU and Central and Eastern European countries”

To understand the evolution of the European Migration System one has to recognise that European states have again been facing significant changes in political, economic and social conditions over the last 20 years, which have led to a restructuring of their interactions. The collapse of the socialist system at the end of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s was accompanied by the emergence of new economic systems in these countries and changes in European administrative and territorial divisions. Until 1989, Western Europe had to deal with the socialist bloc, consisting of Yugoslavia, countries of Central Europe and the USSR. After the collapse of the socialist system, 27 independent states and at least 5 formerly unrecognized countries emerged, with specific relationships, both among themselves and with the EU countries. Some of them joined the EU and the accession to the EU community created new relations and opportunities in population mobility. However, others have formed various political and economic alliances also accompanied in some cases by free visa movement. The collapse of the USSR and Former Yugoslavia (FY) did not destroy their migration systems but gradually transformed them. Their former socialist and historical past determined to a large extent the direction of the movement of their people across Europe. The structural transformations at the meso country level have reproduced and supported the direction of migration flows. In the border areas, specific conditions of mobility apply as people have equal opportunities to participate in both systems. There are open channels between the EU and CIS migration systems and the EU and FY systems of population movement. Migration flows to EU countries which, after the collapse of the socialist bloc were characterised by forced and repatriation migration, formed new Diasporas from South-Eastern and Eastern Europe in the European Union, which have quickly built up bridges with their home countries and close connections have been