Part-time Assistant Professor at the Migration Policy Centre and School of Transnational Governance, European University Institute. Migration studies, asylum, citizenship.
Lorenzo Piccoli
Visa outsourcing giant VFS Global built a multi-billion-dollar business on people who need visas.
A @lighthousereports.com investigation finds aggressive selling, data protection failures, and applicants being pushed into paying for “optional” services.
www.lighthousereports.com/investigatio...
Outsourcing giant VFS Global has made huge profits by exploiting people around the world whose ‘weak’ passports require them to apply for visas to travel
Great @playthegame-org.bsky.social read on the African soccer infrastructure, FIFA payments, and the rise of "diaspora teams" in Africa.
Lorenzo Piccoli
The Trump administration is creating a global network of countries willing to accept deportees.
The numbers are still small, but the threat of being sent to places like, say, Equatorial Guinea or Angola is designed to scare people away from the United States.
www.economist.com/united-state...
«The UAE does not disclose detailed statistics on foreign residents but estimates suggest that before the war perhaps 3m-4m of the country’s 12m people were well-heeled outsiders and their families.»
economist.com/finance-and-...
This wonderful resource, with a slightly complicated name (ENRMSC Hub), connects refugees, migrants, and stateless individuals and provides a catalogue of up-to-date opportunities for education and employment.
hub.enrmsc.org/about
The Migration Movies Database is now available on @letterboxd.social.
This list gathers 600+ films about human movement from 1940 to today: refugees, labour migration, diaspora, border crossing, discrimination, return, and irregular migration.
letterboxd.com/lorenzo_picc...
EU and Schengen countries received nearly 12 million applications for short-stay visas in 2025, marking a 1.8% increase from 2024.
Yet, visa demand remains well below the 17 million applications recorded in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.
home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/news/schenge...
A wave of stadium upgrades across Africa coincides with a growing share of Europe-born footballers representing African nations. Steffany Ndei examines how CAF regulations, state interests, and federa...
We have updated the Migration Movies Database: it now includes more than 600 movies on migration produced globally between 1940 and 2025.
migrationpolicycentre.eu/project/migr...
Videos collected by @nytimes.com shows how the Israeli military has deployed white phosphorous, a weapon that can be extremely harmful, over populated areas in Lebanon.
www.nytimes.com/2026/06/06/w...
Congo will remove visa requirements for all African nationals from 2027, joining Benin, Togo, Rwanda, Kenya, Ghana, and Seychelles in opening its borders to Africans.
Yet, flying within Africa still costs nearly 50% more than comparable distances elsewhere.
www.africanews.com/2026/05/26/c...
Migration is one of cinema’s oldest stories: journeys, borders, exile, belonging, survival, reinvention. This list is based on the Migration Movies Database, a research project by the Migration Policy...
According to figures released by the Commission, EU and Schengen-associated countries received nearly 12 million applications for short-stay visas in 2025, marking a 1.8% increase from 2024. However, ...
From January 1, 2027, the Republic of Congo will abolish visa requirements for all African citizens, marking a major step toward continental integration. Announced in Brazzaville by President Denis Sa...
