New Europeans

By Gemma Scalise

The process of European integration is affecting more and more the social, economic and cultural life of Europeans, which nowadays depends on various territorial levels: local, national and supranational. At the same time, the opening of continental borders created an unprecedented transnational social space. This significant change, which has taken place on the continent within the past sixty years, is also having a strong influence on the sense of territoriality and belonging of the people involved. In Europe we are experimenting with not just a new form of economic and political organisation, but also original forms of action and participation, new power relations, conflicts and alliances; a place for sharing models of behaviour and developing practices of interaction that cut across the national confines, and thus contribute to redefining our identities as Europeans. This makes us wonder whether the process of European integration has indeed helped to form ‘new Europeans’, and whether there is also a corresponding growth in solidarity among Europeans and in their sense of belonging to Europe.

When discussing new Europeans and cosmopolitan identities, we immediately think of the category of citizens that have always lived in the united Europe and fully embrace transnational lifestyles, such as the Erasmus generation or the Eurostars, the élite of professionals who move freely across the continent. However, intra-EU mobility is part of the complex, constantly evolving phenomenon of international migration, although the EU political framework within which Europeans move ensures that their condition, compared to that of the global migrant population, is privileged. Travelling across the continent has become easier and easier for Europeans: on a juridical level, freedom of movement within the EU borders, originally promoted mainly with a view to creating a common market, was extended to all Europeans and recognised as a right in the status of European citizen, as stated by the Schengen agreement; on a practical level, travelling has become easier thanks to the falling costs of some means of transportation, such as low-cost flights, and thanks to the development of a network of infrastructures and to the project of a trans-European high-speed rail network, sponsored by the EU.

As soon as we look at the numbers of those exercising their right to move and live in any EU country, we realise, however, that mobile Europeans are only a small percentage of the total EU population: only between 3 and 5%. It is not easy to ascertain their exact number; this percentage does not include those who commute or travel over limited periods of time, such as Erasmus students and seasonal workers. The variety in the forms of mobility of Europeans means that the latter are often invisible to official data.

There are a number of reasons which lead to the choice to move to another European country. The traditional South-to-North migration across the continent, motivated by the lower development of Mediterranean Europe and aimed at seeking employment, now goes alongside the multidirectional and horizontal flows that concern all European countries. Thanks to improvements in the quality of life and welfare in Southern Europe, there are also movements in the opposite direction, from the North to the South, as in the case of the mobility of the pensioners of Northern Europe, who move to some Southern areas looking for more temperate climates (there are, for instance, many English pensioners in Tuscany, the Costa del Sol, the Algarve and on the Greek coast).

Social, cultural and economic factors contribute to the choice of mobility on the part of highly skilled workers, scientists, researchers, university students, public officials, specialists, frequent flyers to the various European capitals. These decide to move in the search of better work prospects, internationally recognised universities at which to pursue their studies, a society that may offer a better quality of life, a way out for female workers who are put at a disadvantage in sectors where gender discriminations still prevail or for those who want to leave the routine of provincial life or may wish to reunite with their partners.

Movement trajectories that are motivated by economic factors can also be ascribed to the more traditional migratory experiences that now predominantly take place across Europe’s East-West axis. Between the mobile citizens of the old (EU15) and new Europe (EU28) there are remarkable differences in the motives that lead them to leave their country of origin. Western European mobiles have, on average, a high level of education, they move to secure highly prestigious professional positions and higher incomes, and belong, in the majority of cases, to the upper-middle class – managing to maintain or improve their position by means of their migration. But the case of Centre-Eastern Europeans is different, as they cannot escape from the typical dynamics of the traditional migrant, such as social segregation and descending mobility. Centre-Eastern European mobiles find employment mostly in the industry, tourism, domestic services and construction sectors of the EU15 countries and are mostly young, under thirty-five. This data highlights the diverse and heterogeneous profile of mobile Europeans, and partly contradicts the thesis of those who describe them as a de-territorialised élite, privileged from an economic and cultural point of view, with a cosmopolitan lifestyle.

Finally, it is interesting to notice the effects of the economic crisis on the intra-EU flows. The crisis, apart from feeding nationalistic and Eurosceptic positions, such as the various proposals to revise the Schengen agreement that have emerged over the past few years, highlights the opportunity gap that divides Southern and Northern Europe. Those who reap the opportunities afforded by freedom of movement across a greater job market are nowadays the younger people of the countries where the recession was deeper, who, activating once again the migratory channels between South and North, leave Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece, moving to countries with more dynamic economies, such as Germany and the United Kingdom. Unlike their grandparents’ generation, who emigrated from the more depressed Southern regions to find employment in the industries and mines of the North in the aftermath of the Second World War, these young Europeans also leave from the more developed and international cities, such as Milan and Madrid; they are highly qualified, and they decide to move in response to social problems such as unemployment, precariousness and over-qualification relative to the jobs offered.

Reflecting on this information, can we conclude that the experience of mobility is really one of the conditions that may promote new bonds and solidarities between Europeans?

Gemma Scalise is instructor of Topics in Economic and Social Policy for the JMU M.A. Program 'EU Policy Studies' in Florence. She is a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute and she gained her Ph.D. from the University of Florence, where she has worked in the framework of the European project ‘Active Inclusion and Industrial relations from a multi-level governance perspective (Airmulp)’, funded by the DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. In 2015 she was a visiting scholar at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Her research interests include identity, mobility, citizenship, labor market policies and social inclusion in the context of EU integration.