Free movement of people can be considered as a contested issue. While the European Commission stimulates a further 'harmonization' of citizen 'mobility', some member-states question the 'burdens' of 'EU migration'. To understand these differences, it contains a multi-level focus on the meaning-making practices of policy actors at the European Commission and in the Netherlands. The analysis reveals a European legal discourse legitimated by expert authorization which differs with a Dutch national discourse legitimated by mythopoesis. As such, it displays the significance of a discursive approach since it shows the contested meaning-making practices and its policy consequences around intra-European movement.

Woorden vooraf 1 1 Apologies for the English reader. This preface is written in Dutch and only some parts are in English. And since this thesis is about the significance of language, I do value and prefer my native language to write this part Omdat een woord vooraf (geen voorwoord!) een persoonlijke noot is die voorafgaat aan het proefschrift, gun ik mijzelf het comfort om dicht bij mijn gevoelstaal te blijven. Aangezien dit proefschrift eens te meer het belang van taal aantoont, is het nauwelijks verwonderlijk dat ik op deze plaats kies voor het Nederlands. Hierbij kan worden opgemerkt dat de keuze voor het Nederlands een compromis is, aangezien mijn eerste gevoelstaal toch het Roosendaals is ''Every book is a lie'' (Hugo Claus) ''The state is this well-founded illusion, this place that exists essentially because people believe that it exists. […] be careful, all sentences that have the state as subject are theological sentences-which does not mean that they are false, inasmuch as the state is a theological entity, that is an entity that exists by way of belief '' (Bourdieu, 2014: 10). ''Bring down the government. They don't speak for us'' (Radiohead, No Surprises)