Abstract
Accession to the EU of some Central and CEE Countries led to a shift in migration patterns, with countries switching from being characterized solely by emigration to attracting immigrants. This paper maps the migration in this region over the last three decades (1990 -2020), considering emigration dispersion and immigration diversification. Starting from the core-periphery model, and employing network analysis, the purpose of the paper is to test if CEE increased in diversity of origins and destinations and in magnitude or if CEE evolved from periphery to semi-periphery. Network analysis was employed on migrant stock data for 17 countries from CEE and analysing measures for network, nodes and edges. Changing migration patterns show that the semi-periphery status is confirmed. The evolving socioeconomic status of the countries in the region attracts more migration, confirming the world-systems theory. Furthermore, dependency theory shows that migration is structural due to inequalities that continue to exist between countries in their economic, legal and social standards and conditions. Our findings also demonstrate that path dependency in regional migration inflows/outflows constitutes a significant factor influencing migration. Evolving migration trajectories provide empirical support for the designation of semi-periphery status while simultaneously indicating that shifts in regional dynamics can attract further migratory flows, providing more information on the structural nature of migration that has been historically built into a region. We argue that in semi-peripheries migration diversification is inevitable as they need labour migration, self-perpetuation and self-protection, which has implications for policymaking and decision-making on migration.