Mobility, Citizenship and Migration in a Post-Crisis Europe

The economic crisis in Europe post-2008 provided a fertile ground for the re-assertion of national particularism and for the dissemination of discourses questioning not only the idea of free movement of persons but the whole European project per se. Accordingly, the present institutional reality in the European Union is still characterised by two opposed halves: the institutional one that continues to advance free mobility and to promote associated life in the EU and enhanced rights protection for EU citizens, and the re-assertion of state power and neo-nationalism. The latter calls for a "palingenesis," that is, for renegotiated arrangements. However, the advocated palingenesis carries the risk of the destruction of the foundations of the European project. This paper discuss both dimensions of the institutional reality of citizenship and intra-EU mobility and their connections with integration and migration.

Paper prepared within the framework of the project "Towards a More United and Effective Europe". Revised version of a paper presented at the IAI-CIDOB conference on "Migration and Mobility in Post-Crisis Europe", Barcelona, 6 May 2014.