The Crisis of Free Movement in the European Union

Abstract

The European Union is in crisis, and a major part of this is the increasing political backlash against the free mobility of persons. Probably the most dramatic symptom of this is Brexit, which could result in the stripping of rights or, in some scenarios, even physical expulsion of millions of people, whether Britons living in other EU countries, or EU citizens presently living in Britain. While the vote outcome apparently took policy makers by surprise, it represents a trend to redefine the status of intra-EU migrants in ways which clarify that EU citizenship is not equivalent to citizenship in the host country of residence. Unresolved contradictions between supernationally regulated free mobility and national sovereignty have come to the fore, precipitating political crisis. This is a serious obstacle for the European project, and one which is fundamentally embedded in the design of the European integration. As a social engineering project driven by "spill-over," European integration incentivizes elites to cooperate transnationally, but leaves large portions of national civil society outside this élite consensus. The consequence is that free movement of persons is stuck in a fragmented and variegated regulatory mode in which the social rights of mobile persons are precarious and dependent on market contingencies.

From Forced Migration to Forced Arrival: The Campization of Refugee Accommodation in European Cities

“…Controls and closures at and of borders have restricted free movement within the EU over recent years, while the EU and its member states have further sealed external borders. Borders and camps are devices of this "crisis of free movement" (Hansen, 2017;Lillie & Simola, 2016), and are often interweaved in terms of their spatial and functional rationales. In the age of terror, there is moreover a growth of urban anti-terrorism measures such as structures for security and surveillance, and physical barriers.…”

The ‘Singapore scenario’: the uncertain prospects for labour standards in post‐Brexit Britain

“…The UK government as May put it intended to ‘introduce control on free movement so that we have an end of free movement’ (May, ). As Lillie and Simola, () point out in a recent thoughtful contribution, ‘Unresolved contradictions between supernationally regulated free mobility and national sovereignty have come to the fore, precipitating crisis. This is a serious obstacle for the European project, and one which is fundamentally embedded in the design of the European integration’ (Lillie and Simola, : 7).…”

“…As Lillie and Simola, () point out in a recent thoughtful contribution, ‘Unresolved contradictions between supernationally regulated free mobility and national sovereignty have come to the fore, precipitating crisis. This is a serious obstacle for the European project, and one which is fundamentally embedded in the design of the European integration’ (Lillie and Simola, : 7). Free movement of labour constitutes one of the four ‘foundational freedoms’ of the European project to which every member state must subscribe.…”

Lost in Mobility?: Labour Migration from Baltic Lithuania to Sweden

“…1 More recent studies focus on migration policies in response to the effects of extensive emigration (Hazans 2013;Kaska 2013;Sipaviciene and Stankuniene 2013). Interest in migration from the Baltic countries surged preceding the EU enlargement in 2004, with various studies estimating possible immigration rates from the CEE countries (Bauer and Zimmermann 1999;Dustmann et al 2003) and debating the possible effects on presumptive host countries' labour markets and welfare systems via 'social dumping' (Krings 2009;Friberg and Eldring 2013;Lillie and Simola 2016) and the 'abuse of welfare' (Boswell and Geddes 2011;Eurofound 2015). Thus, when it comes to the free movement of people, both the benefits and the challenges of the single European market and the national policy responses to these challenges in the old member states 2 (OMS) are far from new topics in academic debate (Dølvik 2013;Menz 2005).…”

“…In particular, the role of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has increased because of the political complications in modifying the laws for free movement within the EU. According to Lillie and Simola (2016), the ECJ is the main European institution reinforcing the right to free movement. One of the examples is, the so-called 'Laval case', a verdict that banned Swedish national trade unions from striking against what they considered to be social dumping and the unequal wages paid to Latvian posted workers in Sweden (Malmberg 2010).…”