Ettore Recchi

Ettore Recchi is professor of Sociology at Sciences Po Paris as well as part-time Professor at the Migration Policy Centre (MPC) of the EUI (Florence) and Fellow of the Institut Convergences Migrations (Paris). 
He has published more than 200 journal articles, book chapters, working papers, edited volumes and monographs. 
His papers feature in journals of general science (e.g., Scientific Reports), sociology (e.g., European Sociological Review), political science (e.g., West European Politics), demography (e.g., Demographic Research), European studies (e.g., Journal of Common Market Studies), migration studies (e.g., International Migration Review), geography (e.g., Political Geography), global studies (e.g., Global Networks), research methods (e.g., Quality & Quantity) and data science (e.g., EPJ Data Science).  
His latest book is The Handbook of Human Mobility and Migration (Elgar, 2024), co-edited with Mirna Safi.
He has directed several national and international projects on free movement in Europe, transnationalism, migration, and the impact of Covid-19 on social life and mobility. He was awarded the 2020 prize of the American Sociological Association for best international paper in the Global and Transnational Section.

Recchi’s core research agenda revolves around issues of human mobility, investigating the drivers and consequences surrounding the unique expansion of individuals’ movements in space of our age. He questions the cultural, economic, political, and environmental sustainability of geographical mobility through micro- and macro-sociological empirical analyses. At the micro-level, his research delves into the study of the spatiality of individuals’ lifeworlds (or ‘space-sets’). At the macro-level, he leads the Global Mobilities Project at MPC/EUI – a project dedicated to collecting, systematizing and analyzing worldwide data on population movements and their underpinning social, economic, and political conditions. Since 2024, the Global Mobilities Project is part of the Migmobs project, a team work with Adrian Favell (PI, University College Cork) and other scholars worldwide.

Academic Presentations (selection)

• 2025 (with Tobias Grohmann and Luca Bernasconi), “Global Mobility Ginis: The Inequality of International Travel across 230 Countries, 1995-2022”, MPC-Globalcit Annual Conference, EUI, Fiesole, 9 May.
• 2025, “International Mobility as Supplementary Engine of Political Legitimacy”, MIGMOBS workshop, University College Cork, Cork, 20 February.
• 2024, "El mundo movil, el mundo inmóvil: Análisis de las disegualdades mondiales con el Global Mobilities Project", Universidad de La Habana, 11 July. 
• 2024 (with Luca Bernasconi), "Potential Overstayers? Taking Stock of Flight Data for the Analysis of Irregular Migration",  21st IMISCOE yearly conference, ISCTE, Lisbon, 3 July.
• 2024, "People across Places: Transnational Mobility as ‘Degree Zero’ of Migration Studies", opening keynote, 21st IMISCOE yearly conference, ISCTE, Lisbon, 2 July.
• 2024, "Movilidad internacional y actitudes cosmopolitas: el ‘conjunto-espacio’ como categoría analítica", 15th Congreso de la Federación Española de Sociologia, Sevilla, 27 June.
• 2024, "El mundo movil, el mundo inmóvil: Análisis de las disegualdades mondiales con el Global Mobilities Project", INCASI Talk, Instituto de Investigaciones Gino Germani, Universidad de Buenos Aires, 18 April. 
• 2024 (with Luca Bernasconi), "What Commercial Flights Can Tell about Irregular Migration", workshop “Pilot studies on irregular migration”, MirreM project, University of Potsdam, 18 March.
• 2024, "Cultural Fragmentation as Externality of the Liberal Script? A Formal Analysis of Value Change Across 51 National Societies (1995-2020)", BIRT seminar presentation, Freie Universität, Berlin, 14 March.
• 2024 (with Tobias Grohmann), "Exploring The Multifaceted Nature of Transnational Human Mobility: The Global Mobilities Project and the Migmobs Project", workshop “Regime Entanglements: Mobility, Citizenship and the Law”, GLOBALCIT Centre, European University Institute, Florence, 6 March.
• 2023 (with Luca Bernasconi), "Coming and not Going Back: Potential Air Overstayers in the Schengen Area", MirreM project workshop, University of Milan, Milan, 6 October.
• 2023 (with Andrew Zola), "Do You Think You Stand Where You Actually Stand? The interplay of subjective and objective social status in 10 industrialized countries (2002-2021)",  RC28 Summer Conference, ISA World Congress of Sociology, Melbourne, 26 June.
• 2023 (with Marta Veljkovic and Andrew Zola), "Assessing the Long-Term Effects of COVID-19 on Economic Well-Being in France (2019-2022)" , RC28 Spring Conference, Paris, 25 May.
• 2023, "Per una sociologia della mobilità umana", keynote lecture, 5th Mondi Migranti Conference “La questione sociale delle migrazioni”, Università di Milano, 28 April.
• 2023 (with Luca Bernasconi), "Exploring Flight Passenger Data for Measuring Irregular Migration", MirreM project workshop “Innovative approaches to measuring irregular migration”, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, 25 April.
• 2022, "Assessing the Permeability of Global Land Borders", 19th IMISCOE Conference, Oslo, 1 July.
• 2022, "How Permeable are State Borders Worldwide?Towards a Global Index, paper presentation", MPC Annual Conference “Change and Continuities in a Migration World”, EUI, Florence, 23 May.
• 2022, "States as Gatekeepers: Lessons from Macro-Empirical Research on Visas and Borders Globally", keynote at MAPS (Migration and Asylum Policy Systems) Research Network, final conference, Università Orientale, Naples, 20 May.
• 2022, "How Permeable are State Borders Worldwide?" Global Development Network (GDN), Methodological Deep Dive Lecture online, 18 May.
• 2022, "The Civic Stratification of Status and Class Attainment: Micro- and macro-level effects of immigration on intergenerational social mobility in Europe, paper presentation", ISA-RC28 Conference, LSE, 21 April.
• 2022, "Human Mobility and National Borders in a Post-Covid World", Three Lectures, “Critical Conversations”, American Library in Paris, April and May.
• 2021, "Comparing the social, economic and cultural impact of Covid-19 on Europeans with high-quality survey data", workshop organizer, Sciences Po/OSC, 9 December.
• 2021, "Flows, Borders and Controls: Assessing Transnational Mobility on a Global Scale", Migration & Big Data Workshop, Institut Convergences Migration (Dynamics Department), Paris, 25 November.
• 2021, « Faire face au Covid: les reactions de la population française", Conférence « Les expériences de la vulnérabilité dans l’épidémie de Covid-19 », Université de Lille, 12 November.
• 2021, "COVID-19: Lessons for Sociologists", Webinar Researching and Understanding COVID Societies: Sociology and Beyond, International Science Council and International Sociological Association, 25 October. https://council.science/events/covid-sociology/ (video)
• 2021 (avec H. Rapoport, J-P. Cassarino et E. Galbis), « La libre circulation, centre de gravité de la politique migratoire de l’Union Européenne », Roundtable « Repenser la politique migratoire européenne », Festival des Sciences Sociales, "Tout migre ?”, EHESS, Marseille, 25 Septembre.
• 2021, « Résilience, Continuité, Proximité : Les Français durant l’année Covid », Table ronde de l'Union des Entreprises de Proximité (U2P), Maison de la Mutualité, Paris, 16 Septembre.
• 2021, "Sociology of Europe: What is it about? What have we learnt?" Closing keynote, CIVICA Summer School, EUI, Florence, 9 September.
• 2021 (with M. Pasqualini, E. Ferragina, M. Safi), "Coping with Covid-19: Who suffered the most and why? An exploration of well-being with panel data among the French population", 5th SISEC Conference, Catania, 11 June.
• 2021, "L’emigrazione di ricercatori e ricercatrici: dinamiche e determinanti", Cconference “Restare o partire? Migrazioni e carriere nella ricerca”, Scuola Normale Superiore, Firenze, 9 giugno.
• 2021, "Mobility After Covid-19", expert intervention at the CSS4P Workshop “Mapping the Demand Side for Computational Social Science for Policy”, Joint Research Centre (JRC), European Commission, Ispra, 26 May.
• 2021, "Pensare, misurare e governare le migrazioni", lecture at Accademia La Colombaria, Florence, 11 May.
• 2021, "The Airport Factor: Assessing the Impact of Aviation Mobility on the Spread of Covid-19", MPC/EUI Webinar, “International Mobility Restrictions and the Spread of Pandemics: New Data and Research”,  10 February. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmhBNNeURus&feature=youtu.be.

• "Social Change in Global Perspective: A Formal Analysis", Direction Scientifique de Sciences Po (Competitive grant). 2024-2026
• "Winners and Losers of the Covid-19 Pandemic in France and Israel: Evaluating the Long-Term Effects on Well-Being", Maimonide Funds, French-Israeli Research Cooperation Council, in partnership with the Samuel Neaman Institute for Policy Research, Technion (Israel Institute of Technology), Haifa. 2022-2023
• Coping with Covid-19. Social distancing, cohesion and inequality in 2020 France (CoCo) - 2020-2021 (with Sciences Po - CDSP - ANR Flash Call)
• The Space-Set Project: The Power of Personal Geographies. Fine-tuning 'Space-Sets' and Testing their Measurement (2014-2016, funded by Sciences Po Research)

• Maxime Christophe, Demander l'asile en France : étude ethnographique sur les temps et les espaces de l'attente
• Bartholomew Konechni, Studying the Changing Pattern of Spatial Mobility During the COVID-19 Crisis in France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands
• Tania Moutai (co-dir.), Insularités et (im)mobilités. Trajectoires mobilitaires des populations corses et martiniquaises
• Katharina Tittel  (co-dir.), Discours sur l'immigration dans les médias (sociaux) en France et en Allemagne : productions, circulations, interprétations et contestations

- Sociology of migration (master, 2022-)
- Comparative social research (master, 2024-) 
- Introduction to sociology (undergraduate, 2019-, Poitiers & Dijon, 2024-) 
- Sociology of inequalities (master, 2019-2023) 
- Social inequalities in Europe (undergraduate, 2014-2018, Reims)
- Introduction to EU studies (undergraduate, 2016-2018, Reims)
- Sociology of contemporary Europe (master, 2014-2017)
- Comparing European societies (2018-2019, Reims)
- Sociology of free movement (master, 2014-2023)
- Social research methods II (master, 2016-2017)
- Questions of sociological research (master, 2017-2021)
- Comparative sociology of inequalities (master, 2017-2019)
- Sociology of international mobility (undergraduate, 2018-2022, Poitiers)

• Ettore Recchi. Space-Sets: Introducing and Testing a Multi-dimensional Measure of Individual Transnational Mobility. Social Indicators Research, In press, ⟨10.1007/s11205-025-03554-5⟩. ⟨hal-05045399⟩
• Ettore Recchi, Lorenzo Gabrielli, Daniela Ghio. Revisiting acculturation research with big data: the case of the Italian diaspora through the lens of Facebook interests. Quality and Quantity, 2025, ⟨10.1007/s11135-025-02137-3⟩. ⟨hal-05044683⟩
• Speranta Dumitru, Ettore Recchi. The French Exception on the European Migration Scene. Metropolitics.eu, 2024. ⟨hal-04622724⟩
• Speranta Dumitru, Ettore Recchi. L’exception française sur la scène migratoire européenne. Métropolitiques, 2024, ⟨10.56698/metropolitiques.2044⟩. ⟨hal-04593758⟩
• Matthieu Olivier, Marta Veljkovic, Andrew Zola, Ettore Recchi. Before, During and After the Deluge: Monitoring the French Resident Population's Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic with a Probability-Based Longitudinal Survey. 9th conference of the European Survey Research Association (ESRA), Jul 2023, Milan, Italy. ⟨hal-04266079⟩
• Emanuel Deutschmann, Lorenzo Gabrielli, Ettore Recchi. Roads, rails, and checkpoints: Assessing the permeability of nation-state borders worldwide. World Development, 2023, 164, pp.106-175. ⟨10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.106175⟩. ⟨hal-03936472⟩
• Ettore Recchi, Katharina Tittel. The Empirical Study of Human Mobility: Potentials and Pitfalls of Using Traditional and Digital Data. Handbook of Computational Social Science for Policy (ed. Eleonora Bertoni, Matteo Fontana, Lorenzo Gabrielli, Serena Signorelli, Michele Vespe), Springer International Publishing, pp.437-464, 2023, 9783031166242. ⟨10.1007/978-3-031-16624-2_23⟩. ⟨hal-03956897⟩
• Ettore Recchi, Alessandro Ferrara, Alejandra Rodriguez Sanchez, Emanuel Deutschmann, Lorenzo Gabrielli, et al.. The impact of air travel on the precocity and severity of COVID-19 deaths in sub-national areas across 45 countries. Scientific Reports, 2022, 12 (1), pp.16522. ⟨10.1038/s41598-022-20263-y⟩. ⟨hal-03803764⟩
• Marta Pasqualini, Marta Dominguez Folgueras, Emanuele Ferragina, Olivier Godechot, Ettore Recchi, et al.. Who took care of what? The gender division of unpaid work during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in France. Demographic Research, 2022, 46, pp.1007-1036. ⟨10.4054/DemRes.2022.46.34⟩. ⟨hal-03677747⟩
• Ettore Recchi, Emanuel Deutschmann, Michele Vespe. Assessing Transnational Human Mobility on a Global Scale. Pötzschke; S.; Rinken; S. (eds). Migration Research in a Digitized World, Springer, 2022, 9783031013195. ⟨10.1007/978-3-031-01319-5_9⟩. ⟨hal-03739014⟩
• Ettore Recchi, Aurore Flipo, Emmanuelle Duwez. "Ce monde que je connais": les "space-sets" des Français. Emmanuelle Duwez; Pierre Mercklé. Un panel français : l'Etude longitudinale par internet pour les sciences sociales, INED, 2021, Grandes Enquêtes, 9782733260494. ⟨halshs-03222103⟩
• Ettore Recchi, Emanuel Deutschmann, Lorenzo Gabrielli, Nodira Kholmatova. The global visa cost divide: How and why the price for travel permits varies worldwide. Political Geography, 2021, 86 (102350), ⟨10.1016/j.polgeo.2021.102350⟩. ⟨hal-03579874⟩
• Emanuele Ferragina, Ettore Recchi. Leggere la società attraverso il welfare: la lezione di Achille Ardigò. Autonomie locali e servizi sociali, 2021, 1/2021, pp.79. ⟨10.1447/100475⟩. ⟨hal-03384735⟩
• Emanuele Ferragina, Marta Pasqualini, Ettore Recchi, Andrew Zola. Who cares about health and the economy through the Covid-19 pandemic? Longitudinally tracking changes and heterogeneity in people’s perceptions of risks. SocArXiv, 2021, ⟨10.31235/osf.io/rv7e3⟩. ⟨hal-04103880⟩
• Ettore Recchi, Emanuel Deutschmann, Federica Bicchi. Mobility hub or hollow? Cross-border travelling in the Mediterranean, 1995–2016. Global Networks, 2021, 21 (1), pp.146-169. ⟨10.1111/glob.12259⟩. ⟨hal-03567071⟩
• Zachary van Winkle, Emanuele Ferragina, Ettore Recchi. The Unexpected Decline in Feelings of Depression among Adults Ages 50 and Older in 11 European Countries amid the COVID-19 Pandemic. Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, 2021, 7, pp.237802312110327. ⟨10.1177/23780231211032741⟩. ⟨halshs-03361263⟩
• Jen Schradie, Emanuele Ferragina, Marta Pasqualini, Ettore Recchi, Mirna Safi, et al.. L'année de la Covid en France ou l'histoire d'un double confinement. 2020, pp.8. ⟨10.5281/zenodo.4382685⟩. ⟨hal-03386552⟩
• Jen Schradie, Emanuele Ferragina, Marta Pasqualini, Ettore Recchi, Mirna Safi, et al.. The Covid Year in France: A Tale of Two Lockdowns. 2020, pp.8. ⟨10.5281/zenodo.4383162⟩. ⟨hal-03386551⟩
• Ettore Recchi, Irina Ciornei. Los effectos de la inmigración en la movilidad social intergeneracional en la Unión Europea: ¿Frena o acelera?. Olga Salido; Sandra Fachelli. Perspectivas y fronteras en el estudio de la desigualdad social: movilidad social y clases sociales en tiempos de cambio, Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas, pp.211 - 232, 2020, 9788474768336. ⟨hal-03566607⟩
• Mirna Safi, Philippe Coulangeon, Emanuele Ferragina, Olivier Godechot, Emily Helmeid, et al.. La France confinée. Anciennes et nouvelles inégalités. Marc Lazar; Guillaume Plantin; Xavier Ragot. Le monde d'aujourd'hui, Presses de Sciences Po, pp.95-116, 2020, 9782724626704. ⟨hal-03203725⟩
• Ettore Recchi, Emanuele Ferragina, Emily Helmeid, Stefan Pauly, Mirna Safi, et al.. The “Eye of the Hurricane” Paradox: An Unexpected and Unequal Rise of Well-Being During the Covid-19 Lockdown in France. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 2020, 68, pp.100508 - 100512. ⟨10.1016/j.rssm.2020.100508⟩. ⟨hal-03203732⟩
• Ettore Recchi, Emanuele Ferragina, Olivier Godechot, Emily Helmeid, Stefan Pauly, et al.. Living through Lockdown: Social Inequalities and Transformations during the COVID-19 Crisis in France. 2020. ⟨hal-03203721⟩
• Nicolas Sauger, Emanuele Ferragina, Emily Helmeid, Stefan Pauly, Ettore Recchi, et al.. La vie après le confinement : retour à la normale ou quête d'un nouveau cap ?. 2020, pp.8. ⟨10.5281/zenodo.3897359⟩. ⟨hal-03393048⟩
• Nicolas Sauger, Emanuele Ferragina, Emily Helmeid, Stefan Pauly, Ettore Recchi, et al.. Life after lockdown: Getting back on track or charting a new course?. 2020, pp.8. ⟨10.5281/zenodo.3897226⟩. ⟨hal-03393046⟩
• Mirna Safi, Philippe Coulangeon, Olivier Godechot, Emanuele Ferragina, Emily Helmeid, et al.. When life revolves around the home: Work and sociability during the lockdown. 2020, pp.10. ⟨10.5281/zenodo.3839312⟩. ⟨hal-03393054⟩
• Emanuele Ferragina, Carlo Barone, Emily Helmeid, Stefan Pauly, Ettore Recchi, et al.. Dans l’oeil du cyclone : La société française après un mois de confinement. 2020, pp.8. ⟨10.5281/zenodo.3784110⟩. ⟨hal-03393051⟩
• Mirna Safi, Philippe Coulangeon, Olivier Godechot, Emanuele Ferragina, Emily Helmeid, et al.. La vie entre quatre murs : travail et sociabilité en temps de confinement. 2020, pp.10. ⟨10.5281/zenodo.3839288⟩. ⟨hal-03393052⟩
• Emanuele Ferragina, Carlo Barone, Emily Helmeid, Stefan Pauly, Ettore Recchi, et al.. In the eye of the hurricane: French society a month into the lockdown. 2020, pp.8. ⟨10.5281/zenodo.3783990⟩. ⟨hal-03393049⟩
• Ettore Recchi, Emanuele Ferragina, Emily Helmeid, Stefan Pauly, Mirna Safi, et al.. Lockdown for All, Hardship for Some: Insights from the First Wave of the CoCo Project. 2020, pp.6. ⟨10.5281/zenodo.3757870⟩. ⟨halshs-03070206⟩
• Ettore Recchi, Emanuele Ferragina, Emily Helmeid, Stefan Pauly, Mirna Safi, et al.. Confinement pour tous, épreuve pour certains. Les résultats de la première vague d'enquête du projet CoCo. 2020, ⟨10.5281/zenodo.3757813⟩. ⟨halshs-03070063⟩
• Ettore Recchi, Emanuel Deutschmann, Lorenzo Gabrielli, Nodira Kholmatova. Assessing Visa Costs on a Global Scale. 2020. ⟨hal-03738976⟩
• Ettore Recchi, Emanuele Ferragina, Olivier Godechot, Emily Helmeid, Stefan Pauly, et al.. Living through Lockdown: Social Inequalities and Transformations during the COVID-19 Crisis in France. 2020. ⟨hal-03099647⟩
• Ettore Recchi, Emanuel Deutschmann, Michele Vespe. The global network of transnational mobility. N-IUSSP, 2019. ⟨hal-03570833⟩
• Ettore Recchi, Emanuel Deutschmann, Natale Fabrizio, Michele Vespe. Dissecting global air traffic data to discern different types and trends of transnational human mobility. EPJ Data Science, 2019, 8 (26), ⟨10.1140/epjds/s13688-019-0204-x⟩. ⟨hal-03567054⟩
• Ettore Recchi, Emanuel Deutschmann, Michele Vespe. Estimating transnational human mobility on a global scale. 2019. ⟨hal-03456955⟩
• Ettore Recchi, Emanuel Deutschmann. Global Human Mobility Rapidly Increasing, New Open-Access Dataset Shows. 2019. ⟨hal-03392135⟩
• Giulia Assirelli, Carlo Barone, Ettore Recchi. “You Better Move On”. International Migration Review, 2019, 53 (1), pp.4 - 25. ⟨10.1177/0197918318767930⟩. ⟨hal-03393080⟩
• Ettore Recchi, Adrian Favell (Dir.). Everyday Europe. Ettore Recchi; Adrian Favell. Policy Press, pp.328, 2019, 9781447334200. ⟨hal-03222322⟩
• Ettore Recchi. In Francia. Viaggio tra gli italiani all'estero, Società Editrice il Mulino, 2019, 9788815268112. ⟨hal-03567119⟩
• Ettore Recchi. Europäische Gessellschaften: Konvergenzen und Divergenzen. Europa jenseits des Konvergenzparadigmas:, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, pp.229 - 256, 2019, 9783848749287. ⟨hal-03393806⟩
• Ettore Recchi, Aurore Flipo. Spatial Mobility in Social Theory. SocietàMutamentoPolitica. Rivista italiana di sociologia, 2019, Spatial Mobility in Social Theory, 10 (20), pp.125-137. ⟨10.13128/smp-11051⟩. ⟨hal-02443307⟩
• Ettore Recchi. The Engine of 'Europeanness'? Free Movement, Social Transnationalism and European Identification. Questioning EU Citizenship: Judges and the Limits of Free Movement and Solidarity in the EU, Hart Publishing, pp.135 - 148, 2017, 9781509914685. ⟨hal-03394074⟩
• Ettore Recchi. Beauchemin (Cris), Hamel (Christelle), Simon (Patrick) (dir.), Trajectoires et origines. Enquête sur la diversité des populations en France. Revue française de sociologie, 2017, 58 (2), pp.310-313. ⟨10.3917/rfs.582.0301⟩. ⟨hal-03414340⟩
• Ettore Recchi, Hadrien Dubucs, Thomas Pfirsch, Camille Schmoll. Les migrations italiennes dans la France contemporaine. Les nouveaux visages d'une mobilité européenne historique. Hommes & migrations, 2017, L'Europe en mouvement, Avril-septembre 2017 (1317-1318), pp.59-67. ⟨10.4000/hommesmigrations.3871⟩. ⟨hal-03399702⟩
• Ettore Recchi. Izabela Grabowska (2016). Movers and Stayers: Social Mobility, Migration and Skills. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 242 pp.. Central and Eastern European Migration Review, 2017, 6 (1), pp.120-126. ⟨hal-03458953⟩
• Ettore Recchi, Lorenzo Grifone Baglioni, Justyna Salamonska, Thea Rossi. Cittadini in movimento. Una tipologia induttiva della mobilità transnazionale in Europa. Rassegna italiana di Sociologia, 2017, 58 (1), pp.63 - 98. ⟨10.1423/86359⟩. ⟨hal-03414361⟩