Asylum seekers into southern European countries (Greece, Italy, Spain) over the last decade: a first comparative approach

During their history, Greece, Italy and Spain, part of the greater Mediterranean area, where migration flows (immigration as well as emigration) are among the most intense in the world, have not ceased to be simultaneously attractive and repulsive. The last decade, however, was a pivotal decade. These three countries have progressively faced massive inflows caused mainly by the various crises in a large number of regions in both Africa and Asia, while, at the same time, they were forced to handle two crises: the grave economic crisis and the "refugee’ crisis". The aim of the present paper is to detect the main similarities and differences between Greece, Italy and Spain through a comparative approach of data collected by Eurostat on asylum applicants, final decisions and rejections by citizenship.