Panel “Citizenship and mobility in the EU: policies and practices”

Panel chair: Daniela Vintila (Centre for Ethnic and Migration Studies, University of Liege)

Abstract: In a context of widening inequalities and rising populism, increasing mobility to and from EU countries clearly represents a major challenge for defining the boundaries of citizenship in the EU. The integration of migrants and their offspring across Europe has increasingly gained salience in societal and political debates. At the same time, the EU citizenship status continues to be portrayed as a powerful institutional and legal tool that marks the reconfiguration of the traditional paradigm of belonging in an increasingly diverse European Union. This panel seeks to contribute to ongoing debates regarding the design, outcomes and outputs of citizenship and mobility policies within the EU. To do so, we focus on three important angles. Firstly, we examine the legal implications of the EU citizenship status for the integration of mobile EU citizens across European host countries and, more broadly, for the politics of inclusion and exclusion within the EU. Secondly, we focus on mobile Europeans’ rights by looking not only at how these rights are defined and contested across the EU, but also at how EU citizens exercise these rights while residing in another EU Member State or in non-EU countries. Thirdly, the panel also discusses new top-down and bottom up participatory initiatives aiming to strengthen mobile Europeans’ identification with the EU by reshaping the meaning and significance of the EU citizenship.

Deadline for abstracts: Thursday 3rd October, please send to Daniela.Vintila@uliege.be