ABSTRACT
This concluding chapter retraces the book’s premises, goals, means, and main findings. To better portray the complexity of the irregular migration phenomenon, and to highlight the contribution that this book has sought to make to related theoretical, security, and policy debates, this chapter comprises three key elements. First, it outlines the unfolding trends that have been traced by this book, including those concerning global developments, migrants, transit countries, destination countries’ local populations, destination countries themselves, and international organisations. Second, it assesses the volume’s novel theoretical and empirical insights into irregular migration, thus highlighting its contributions in terms of theory, security, policy, and Italy and Australia as case studies. Third, it explores select potential future outlooks, under the labels of unlikely, probable, and desirable. Next, it shows that international institutions increasingly acknowledge irregular migration as a key component of 21st-century global affairs. Lastly, it mentions some of the elements that this book has not directly engaged with, and it reiterates the hope that this volume’s findings might help to advance both academic and non-academic debates, prior to presenting the final conclusions.
