Recchi studied Political science at the University of Florence in 1990 before receiving his PhD in Social and Political Sciences (with distinction) from the European University Institute in 1996.[2][3][1][4] From 1993–2002 he was assistant professor of sociology at the University of Florence and then associate professor of urban sociology from 2002 to 2009.[4][2] Between 2005 and 2009 he was also co-director of the Summer School on Migration and Development at the European University Institute.[1][4][2] In 2009, he became Professor of political sociology at the University of Chieti-Pescara before becoming professor of sociology at Sciences Po Paris in 2014.[2][3][4] In addition to his role at Sciences Po Paris, he is also a part-time professor at the Migration Policy Centre with European University Institute.[2]
Recchi was coordinator for European Commission funded PIONEUR, MOVEACT, and EUCROSS projects focusing on migration and transnationalism in the European Union.[3][2] In 2020, he designed and directed surveys of migrant populations in Italy and spatial mobility section of the French ELIPSS longitudinal study.[3][2] In the same year, he directed two projects on COVID-19, "The Airport Factor: Assessing the Impact of International and National Aviation Mobility on the Spread of Covid-19” and “Faire face au Covid-19: Distanciation sociale, cohesion, et inégalité dans la France de 2020”.[3][5][6] The first project studies the impact of commercial flights on the spread of the coronavirus and the second, which received funding from the French National Research Agency, studies the COVID-19 lockdown experience in France.[6][5]
