EUROPA XXI Vol. 37, 2019, pp. 23-36 htps://doi.org/10.7163/Eu21.2019.37.2 THE UNWRITTEN ‘LAWS OF MIGRATION’: REFLECTIONS ON INEQUALITIES, ASPIRATIONS AND ‘CULTURES OF MIGRATION’ Loukia-Maria Fratsea Department of Geography, Harokopio University of Athens 70 El. Venizelou Street, 17671 Kallithea, Athens: Greece fratsea@hua.gr. Abstract. Ever since Ravenstein’s work on the “Laws of Migraton”, the determinants/drivers of migra- ton--that is, the queston: ‘Why do people migrate?’ – has been at the heart of migraton studies. The exploraton of migraton/mobility processes also emphasizes the ways that migrants decide to leave and embark on their journey and how migratory practces may orient and motvate the (im)mobility decisions and aspiratons of other migrant actors, establishing various ‘cultures of migraton’ and creatng new ‘im- aginaries of mobility’ that shape future movements. The paper aims to explore the changing aspiratons of migraton that infuence the migraton decision-making of Romanian migrants and the way these are shaped by micro, meso and structural factors in both sending and receiving countries. Keywords: aspiratons, cultures of migraton, Romanian migraton, territorial inequalites. Introducton Ever since Ravenstein’s work on the Laws of Migraton (1885, 1889) sought to explain the motves or factors that lead to populaton movements - or, put more simply, to answer the queston: ‘why do people migrate?’ – it has been at the heart of migraton studies. Since then, many theoretcal approaches stemming from diferent disciplines (economics, sociology, anthropology, etc.) have examined migraton processes at diferent scales (micro, meso, macro) with a view to deciphering the determinants and drivers of migraton. Thus, while functonalist, and partcularly economic theories, focus on income and employment diferentals between origin and destnaton coun- tries or places and examine the factors that may push or pull migraton fows, historical-structural approaches turn their atenton to macro processes that shape human mobility. Other approach- es combine micro and macro explanatons for migraton, focusing on the role of networks and the crucial ‘meso level’ that contributes to the contnuaton of migraton fows. Setng aside the ‘thorny queston’ of whether diferent migraton theories can be combined (de Haas, 2014; de Haas, Castles & Miller, 2020), there is as yet no overall or general migraton theory which explains all the processes involved in migraton (Massey et al., 1993; Arango, 2000; Castles, 2010; Cohen & Sirkeci, 2011; de Haas, 2014, de Haas et al., 2020). Nevertheless, it appears that there is a general consensus that, given the current complexity and dynamics of migratory fows, the study and