New Societies, Old Minorities / New Minorities, Old Societies?

Societies and social actors constantly face challenges under the impact of many countervailing forces that act within the economic, demographic, political, educational and social realms. In their search for improving their living, people may adopt alternative life strategies and more flexible arrangements that profoundly affect the architecture and fabric of communities. Some changes are easily discernible or self-evident: international migration permanently increased the stock of migrants, transforming, in various contexts, both immigrants and residents, into visible minorities. New waves of migrants and specific events where migrants are involved raise major questions about the nature and capacity of the security systems across European societies and their axiological foundations. An increase in number of elderly members of the population creates, in turn, the perspective of new majorities and minorities forming. This raises important challenges to public social security systems and calls into question their sustainability.