Search

This contribution advances knowledge of contemporary Moldovan migration and is the first comparative description of the situation of Moldovans in Czechia and Italy. Our specific objective is to review evidence about how the concept of the migration-development nexus applies to the Moldovan situation. In the absence of comparable primary data on Moldovan migration our research design uses mixed methods and triangulates data from Moldova and across the main destinations for Moldovan migration, including Italy and Czechia. In addition to confirming prior research on the significance of remittances to the Moldovan economy since 1991, we report three additional findings. First, Moldovan migrants, particularly women who may work as domestic workers are often invisible and undercounted. Second, Moldovan migration is rapidly diversifying, with new destinations, selectivities, and forms and modes of mobility. Third, the global economic recession of 2008 had different implications for Moldovan migration patterns to and from Czechia and Italy. We conclude with a specific call for research that extends the migration-development nexus by examining social remittances and the mobility and labour strategies of Moldovan family reunifiers. The paper also argues for availability of robust data that would allow comparative analysis of international migration and could better support evidence-based debates about migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We examined vertical foliage distribution (based on destructive harvesting) in the deciduous oak species Quercus pubescens and Quercus cerris, at the level of the entire tree and the forest community, in two adjacent stands in Tuscany (central Italy). The study was aimed at characterizing the structure of these stands in a manner suitable as a biometric background for comparison with canopy processes of other forest sites. The leaf study was based on the ‘cloud’ technique described earlier, characterizing the aggregation of leaves on branches and their position in the canopy. We used regressions (based on coefficients of the double-Gauss equation) to generalize leaf distribution in individual trees and to up-scale the data for whole stands. Q. cerris trees were about six meters taller than Q. pubescens, which grew in a more xeric site. The leaf area index was lower in the stand mainly composed of Q. pubescens (LAI=2.8) than in the Q. cerris stand (LAI=4.7). Oak canopies occupied about one half of the stand volume and about 40% of that were ‘clouds’. The leaf area index expressed on the area of projected crown and social trees differed substantially in individual trees of different size. The projected crown to social tree area ratio (an indicator of the structural balance of a tree) reached its minimum in a defined range of tree size; such an unfavourable balance may represent a risk to the survival of trees. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]