The Politics of Mobile Citizenship in Europe

Nora Siklodi

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9783030490508
• eBook ISBN: 9783030490515
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: European Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The Politics of Mobile Citizenship in Europe explores contemporary models of national and European Union (EU) citizenship in the context of intra-EU mobility. Scholars have often addressed these models from separate disciplinary standpoints. National citizenship has been studied through the prism of citizenship studies and EU citizenship from an EU studies viewpoint. To contribute to their ongoing discussion and offer a politically embedded perspective, Siklodi applies the citizenship studies lens to the analysis of EU-wide survey data and original focus group evidence of young and highly educated EU mobiles and stayers in Sweden and Britain. Specifically, she investigates political community building processes, including processes of differentiation and exclusion, and the dimensions of citizenship – identity, rights and participation – at the national and EU levels. Siklodi proposes a redefinition of the active/passive citizen dichotomy in terms of mobiles/stayers to providea more accurate description of contemporary citizen attitudes and behaviours across the European community.

© The Author(s) 2020

N. SiklodiThe Politics of Mobile Citizenship in EuropePolitics of Citizenship and Migrationhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49051-5_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction: The Politics of Contemporary Citizenship: What’s Going On?

Nora Siklodi^{1, 2}

(1)

Politics and International Relations, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK

(2)

Visiting Fellow in Democracy and Citizenship in Education, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway

Nora Siklodi

Email: [email protected]

End Abstract

In the light of heightened concern—especially among young people—with global challenges, from the climate emergency to widening income gaps, some of us might be tempted to believe that the time for a “one world community” is finally upon us. But, if we consider the only instance of a ‘global community’ so far—the European Union (EU)—we are likely to find a community where “all passports are equal, but some are more equal than others” (Castles 2005: 691, emphasis added). It is precisely this paradox which serves as the departure point for my book.

Specifically, this book investigates two related issues in the politics of contemporary citizenship. First, it examines the issue of community building processes, including differentiation and exclusion and the role assigned to and realised by citizens in the course of these processes. It is expected that these processes grant contemporary citizenship models their distinctively political function (Bosniak 2008; Isin and Nielsen 2008).

As we focus on the EU example, we notice that legal and policy discourses categorise citizens and non-citizens based on their intra-EU mobility status, country of origins and prospective economic contributions—in this order—and rather than merely on the basis of their nationality (Hansen and Hager 2010; O’Brien 2016). Accordingly, ‘first-class’ ‘Eurostars’—the EU-15 mobiles—visiting European and international students as well as high-flying economic migrants and highly skilled third country nationals (TCNs) seem to make up the most ‘desired’ segment of a novel EU community.¹ The ‘second-class’ group, for now, refers to Central and Eastern European (CEE) mobiles. While desired for their potential economic contributions, they are projected as the principal members of the EU’s very own ‘welfare’ tourist flows. These two, intra-EU mobile groups expected to interact with national and nationalist stayers and, following the refugee crisis, third class individuals; the members of a growing number of asylum seekers and refugees. If we take the first two categories as evidence of an exciting EU community emerging, the last two undoubtedly highlight the continued relevance of national communities. To explore the informal ways in which the role of citizens and non-citizens are changing in the light of these arrangements, this book investigates young peoples’ experiences of their dual memberships in the budding EU (mobile) and their (home) national communities.

Second, the book turns to the addressing two models of citizenship as present in the EU today—the national and EU models. Accordingly, citizens from 28 member states (at the time of writing) are placed as part and parcel of an all-encompassing EU citizenry (at least from a formal, legal perspective), who enjoy distinct EU rights and entitlements. Under EU citizenship, these nationals are encouraged to move, study and reside freely across the EU—the ultimate confirmation of their ‘fundamental’ legal status as transnational citizens (Olsen 2012). In fact, EU citizenship seems to be all about intra-EU mobility. And EU mobile citizens are increasingly present. Yes, the actual number of member state nationals—‘active’ EU citizens—who embark on EU mobility might seem low, making up circa 3.4% of the EU’s total population (Eurostat 2019a). Yet even this number is larger than the population of 20 of the EU’s 28 member states and has grown exponentially, by nearly 290%, following the Eastern enlargement rounds in the mid-2000s (see Table 1.1). This number is also likely to be an underestimate, with temporary intra-EU mobility flows from cross-border shopping, holidays and seasonal work—all of which occur at a larger scale—notoriously difficult to trace (European Commission 2011).

Table 1.1

Intra-EU mobility per host country (2003–2018)

		EU-25 movers			EU-27 Free movers		EU-28 Free movers
	Year/Host country	2003	2004	2006	2007	2013	2014	2018
1	Germany	2,329,788	2,331,984	2,144,648	2,467,157	2,693,259	3,179,670	4,205,194
2	United Kingdom	1,009,591	1,030,820	1,280,000	1,456,900	2,456,864	2,624,313	3,860,237
3	Spain	519,027	621,750	854,761	1,634,597	2,060,653	1,991,093	1,930,905
4	Italy	167,124	189,998	223,537	606,188	1,240,157	1,441,706	1,562,147
5	France	1,237,849		1,110,000	1,299,028	1,407,901	1,466,185	1,542,653
6	Belgium			612,000	632,243	807,920	826,938	902,706
7	Austria	172,497	182,124	218,746	263,174	416,022	518,670	693,855
8	Netherlands	222,942	224,285	233,867	244,918	380,540	403,028	525,626
9	Ireland				351,874	396,954	406,062	434,988
10	Sweden	206,919	206,977	213,168	225,487	281,975	289,225	318,263
11	Luxembourg			155,000	170,940	206,119	214,390	244,400
12	Czech Republic	59,122	63,298	87,144	109,866	160,626	173,279	219,350
13	Denmark		66,550	71,994	81,219	147,075	160,014	213,465
14	Greece			88,000	157,700	196,114	192,642	211,155
15	Portugal	66,672		81,000	95,556	100,930	100,595	136,887
16	Cyprus		44,800	55,000	77,900	112,587	110,871	114,536
17	Finland	32,762	34,558	37,923	42,471	76,328	83,990	98,212
18	Hungary		17,347	24,879	101,046	79,835	80,817	77,998
19	Romania					19,528	20,618	56,750
20	Slovakia		12,202	14,041	19,218	55,909	45,174	55,949
21	Malta					12,846	15,210	38,563
22	Poland				23,928	26,162	27,710	30,098
23	Slovenia	1,829	1964	2540	3006	6925	16,318	19,540
24	Estonia			5000	6700	7707	7830	18,890
25	Croatia					8662	9816	16,598
26	Bulgaria					11,762	12,139	13,105
27	Latvia	3386	4407		6264	5590	6035	6192
28	Lithuania	2868	3200	3426	3491	3248	3711	6129
	EU Total	6,032,376	5,036,264	7,516,674	10,080,871	13,3...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Introduction: The Politics of Contemporary Citizenship: What’s Going On?
• 2. Citizenship, Free Movement and the EU
• 3. A Snapshot of Mobile Citizenship in the EU
• 4. Community Building Processes and EU Mobility
• 5. National Citizenship in a Mobile Europe: They Are Changing!
• 6. EU Citizenship and Mobility: A Less Than Perfect Partnership
• 7. Conclusion: Where Is Mobile Citizenship in Europe—And Elsewhere—Heading?
• Back Matter