Giulio Benedetti

Giulio Benedetti

Biography

Giulio Benedetti is a doctoral researcher at Maastricht University and the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga. His research focuses on migration infrastructures, labour informality, and the diversification of migration from Central Asia beyond Russia, towards Europe and other emerging destinations.

His dissertation examines how migrants navigate recruitment agencies, informal brokers, digital networks, and regulatory frameworks across different migration corridors. Combining interview and survey data, his work explores the ambivalent role of intermediaries in shaping migrants’ legal status and access to work. He is also an external consultant for the Federal Government Commissioner for Migration, Refugees, and Integration in Germany, conducting applied research on the working conditions of migrant truck drivers.

At YCIE, Giulio will consolidate his doctoral research and develop the basis for a comparative project on infrastructures of mobility from Central Asia and the Caucasus, with a particular focus on the logistics sector. Building on fieldwork among truck drivers from Central Asia and the Caucasus, his project examines how recruitment practices and labour regimes shape new forms of mobility and precarity across the region, but also the emergence of new forms of social and labour activism.

Among his recent publications are:

  • Benedetti, G., Sauka, A., Pavlova, M., Zvonareva, O., & Groot, W. (2025). Pioneering new migration routes: central Asian truck drivers’ experiences in the EU. Central Asian Survey, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2025.2479099 
  • Benedetti, G., Pavlova, M., Zvonareva, O., Groot, W., & Sauka, A. (2026). Truck drivers and intermediaries of migration between Central Asia and the EU. Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, 34(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/25739638.2025.2578273  
  • Pesci, E., & Benedetti, G. (2026). MobilitĂ  e infrastrutture della migrazione tra Asia Centrale ed Europa. In C. Frappi & M. Puleri, Verso una nuova geografia della mobilitĂ  in Europa ed Eurasia  Crisi, confini e nuove migrazioni. Fondazione UniversitĂ  Ca’ Foscari. https://doi.org/10.30687/979-12-5742-027-7/004Â