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SMMS (Migratory Scenarios and Social Change)

SMMS is a research center within the Department of Sociology and Social Research at the University of Trento. It was established as a space for researchers, students, and professionals in the field to meet and exchange ideas, to produce studies, documentation, training, and qualified research on contemporary migration processes and the social changes they entail.
The SMMS center aims to contribute to the development of rigorous empirical research programs on international migration in Italy and Europe, promoting the exchange and sharing of research results, including through the systematic publication of the data collected and the procedures by which they were produced.
The SMMS center participates in international research on forms of spatial mobility in contemporary societies with the ambition of promoting the analysis of social changes triggered by such mobility, not only in receiving countries, but also in countries of origin and transit. In this sense, it promotes comparative and multi-situated research and pursues initiatives aimed at promoting the international presence of Italian researchers in theoretical and empirical research on migration.
The SMMS center promotes multidisciplinary research at the university, having established, together with colleagues from the law faculty and the psychology and cognitive sciences department, the International Migration Laboratory, a university initiative affiliated with the European Imiscoe network. In this capacity, it is active in the Master's program in Migration Law and Policy (https://imigralab.org/master-dirpom/), the MIPOCHANGE international winter school (https://eventi.unitn.it/en/misochange-winter-school), and the SuXr initiative: university students for refugees promoted by the university (https://eventi.unitn.it/en/suxr-university-students-refugees). 

Currently, SMMS researchers are working on the following topics:

  • Ethnic segregation, assimilation, and social cohesion; 
  • Homing processes; irregular migration systems; 
  • The transition to adulthood of young people with a migrant background; 
  • Female migration; 
  • Models of sociability, migration routes, and integration of immigrants; 
  • Social determinants of migration control policies; 
  • Developments in the sociological theory of international migration and ethnic relations.

The founding members of the study centre are:

  • Professor Giuseppe Sciortino (Scientific director),
  • Professor Francesca Decimo

Full members

Collaborators

  • dott.ssa Milena Belloni
  • dott.ssa Melissa Blanchard 
  • dott.ssa Aurora Favale 
  • prof. Nicholas Harney 
  • dott. Jason Mast
  • dott.ssa Camilla Pangallo
  • prof.ssa Roberta Raffaetà

 

Events

Upcoming events

  • 12 January 2026 - 23 January 2026 - MISOCHANGE Winter School - Migration and Social Change – 2nd edition

Past events

  • 15 October 2025 - A conversation on Undoing Nothing Waiting for Asylum, Struggling for Relevance - by Paolo Boccagni