Social identities, societal change and mental borders (original) (raw)
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Mobility and Identity in a Wider European Union
European Societies, 2013
Over the past two decades, the theoretical frameworks of human mobility studies have undergone profound changes. The rise of transnational and border analysis, the formulation of the embodied experiences of migration, the increasing interest in migrants' attachment to place and sense of home have coalesced to enrich our understanding of human mobility. This paper explores how Romanian immigrants in Spain interpret the changes to their global identity in terms of self-perceptions within the context of the enlargement of the European Union (EU) towards Eastern Europe. By means of qualitative research, the principal aim of this article is to highlight how the migration process, which is closely tied to border dynamics and European expansion, and which has occurred in stages from 1990 to the present, has influenced the (re)construction of identity and the changes in discourse among immigrants. The experiences of the interviewees show that migration/mobility and place-that left behind in the country of origin and the new place in the receiving countryare essential factors in the reconstruction of identity in the 21 st century.
This working paper sets out to understand the impact of the free intra-EU mobility and national belonging on shaping the identities of young migrants within the European Union (EU), with a particular case-study of Slovak migrants in the London area. Through exploration of the individual journeys and stories of 19 young Slovak migrants, the paper explores how the process of migration and mobility impacts on migrants’ identities and their sense of home and belonging, as well as the role that their national identity and citizenship plays in this process. Results empirically demonstrate that free movement and expanded mobility have on the whole not eroded the distinct national identities and citizenship of Slovak migrants in the UK. Rather, the combination of migration with legal status has facilitated their development of multiple belongings and a temporary mind-set that in turn enables them to differentiate themselves from migrants in the conventional negative sense created by a nationalist discourse. In the final section of the paper I turn to a brief examination of the impact of ‘Brexit’ on the thoughts and future plans of these migrants, based on some post-Brexit conversations with 11 of the interviewees.
The last decade has seen the progressive, but in many ways difficult, reconnection of a divided Europe. Europeanisation, National Identities and Migration concentrates on the changes in collective identities resulting from European integration and the Eastern enlargement of the EU. This overall process particularly includes the restoration and reorganisation of the European system of nation-states, alongside the redefinition and intensification of national identities and reciprocal boundary constructions.
Along the borders between the “old“ and the ”new” EU, where sizeable differences in income and economic development persist, cross-border commuting and other forms of economically based cross-border relations have become increasingly relevant. This working paper analyses the perceptions of experts and civil servants of the effects of Eastern European enlargement in the Austrian-Hungarian and the Austrian-Slovak border regions with a particular focus on the labour market and the education sector. Whilst labour mobility between these countries is mainly unilaterally directed towards Austria, the Austrian-Slovak border region is also characterised by a slightly growing mobility of managers as well as residential mobility towards Austria. In contrast, the findings suggest that labour mobility between Hungary and Austria not only is but would stay unidirectional. The authors also suggest that cross-border mobility in the region goes beyond labour mobility and includes residential (e.g. Slovaks building houses in Austria) and educational mobility (e.g. Hungarian citizens enrolling children in the Austrian school system). Overall, the authors argue, cross-border mobility stays to be shaped by the specific spatial, economic and cultural conditions characteristic for a border region. They conclude that the abolition of the borders between the EU Member States are thus a necessary but not a sufficient condition for stronger regional integration which still mainly depends on the politics of cross-border mobility of Member States and regional and municipal administrations.
2019
Whilst most of the research on intra-EU mobility has mainly focused on the reasons behind young Southern Europeans leaving their home countries, and secondly on their experiences within the new context, little is known about their sense of belonging and identities. This article aims to fill this gap by exploring Italian and Spanish migrants' social identity reposi-tioning and the cultural change characterising their existential trajectories. Drawing on 69 semi-structured interviews with Italians and Spaniards living in London and Berlin, this article shows that the sense of belonging to one or more political communities and boundary work are related to individual experiences and can change due to structural eventualities such as the Brexit referendum. While identification with the host society is rare, attachment to the home country is quite common as a result of people's everyday experiences. Cultural changes and European/cosmopolitan identification are linked to exposure to new environments and interaction with new cultures, mostly concerning those with previous mobility experience , as well as to a sentiment of non-acceptance in the UK. However, such categories are not rigid, but many times self-identification and attachments are rather blurred also due to the uncertainty around the duration of the mobility project. This makes individual factors (gender, age, family status, employment, education) that are often considered as determinants of identification patterns all but relevant.
Social Mobility and Identity Formation
2014
and Amsterdam. His main research topics are national and ethnic identities, interethnic relations, integration theories and education. He gained extensive field research experiences in Chile, Germany and Brazil. He is co-editor of The European Second Generation Compared: Does the Integration Context Matter?
Mobility and Identity in a Wider European Union Experiences of Romanian migrants in Spain
European Societies
Over the past two decades, the theoretical frameworks of human mobility studies have undergone profound changes. The rise of transnational and border analysis, the formulation of the embodied experiences of migration, the increasing interest in migrants' attachment to place and sense of home have coalesced to enrich our understanding of human mobility. This paper explores how Romanian immigrants in Spain interpret the changes to their global identity in terms of self-perceptions within the context of the enlargement of the European Union (EU) towards Eastern Europe. By means of qualitative research, the principal aim of this article is to highlight how the migration process, which is closely tied to border dynamics and European expansion, and which has occurred in stages from 1990 to the present, has influenced the (re)construction of identity and the changes in discourse among immigrants. The experiences of the interviewees show that migration/mobility and place -that left behi...