Recent talk by Professor Dario Melossi on Imprisonment, Migration, and the Economy

On 25 April 2013 and as part of the Centre for Criminology Seminar Series, Professor Dario Melossi, of the University of Bologna, gave an interesting talk comparing Europe and the United States (US) in relation to imprisonment and migration patterns. The imprisonment rate of foreign nationals in Europe is high in comparison to the US, which has a disproportionately high rate of incarceration among its black and hispanic populations.  In parallel, there has been a high level of deportation in the US. Within Europe, there is significant variation among countries in the proportions of incarcerated foreign nationals. How to make sense of all this? During the presentation, and subsequent discussion, various elements to these differences were considered and debated.