Editorial 

Béla Galgóczi and Calvin Allen

This first issue of the SEER Journal for Labor and Social Affairs in Eastern Europe for 2022 focuses on the effects of multiple crises on south-east Europe, under the title 'Southeast Europe in a turbulent world'. Russia's invasion of Ukraine poses a fundamental threat to the rules-based international order and to the stability of Europe. The Balkans are massively affected due to the ambivalent relations with Russia held by large parts of it, not to speak about its dependence on Russian fossil fuels. The current geopolitical shifts are also putting the eastern enlargement of the EU into a different perspective. This issue therefore covers various topics including EU enlargement, the status of Bosnia and Herzegovina and migration, all three having been discussed in the SEER Journal in the last couple of years in great detail. 

The full issue can be found → here

Contents:

  • The transforming role of the European Commission in the EU integration process (Lubomira Popova)

  • The west's long-distorted view of the Balkans and their people led to a 'catastrophic' outcome (Riada Asimovic Akyol)

  • Sliding into the abyss? Bosnia-Herzegovina 30 years after the start of the war (Jens Becker and Ina Kulić)

  • ArcelorMittal, Zenica: the logic of collective action (Peter Scherrer)

  • Workers without borders? The rights of workers from the Balkans in the EU (Georg Blokus, Aleksandra Lakić, Niccolò Milanese, Mladen Nikolova, Tanja Pavlov and Aleksandra Savanovic)

  • Internal migration and population distribution in Albania - the case of Durana (Anisa Balla and Blerta Avdia)

  • Reflections on the link between digitization andfirm performance during the pandemic: the case of Albania (Ermira Kalaj, Flora Merko and Ela Golemi)

  • Social welfare considerations in a rights-basedapproach to countering climate change: lessons forsouth-east Europe (Qerim Qerimi)