Bonds of Transnationalism and Freedom of Mobility: Intra-European Onward Migrants Before and After Brexit

The transnationalism and mobility approaches have both been developed in opposition to the older linear paradigm of migration theory, but with different focuses: on attachments within different countries in transnationalism, on multiple and open-ended moves in the mobility approach. Using interviews with onward migrants and migrants potentially planning an onward migration (in particular Bangladeshis who have migrated from Italy to the UK, EU27 citizens in the UK, and Britons in Belgium), in this presentation we explore the interaction between transnational bonds and open ended mobility. In a context characterised by Brexit and, as a reaction, by an increased appreciation for EU freedom of movement, most of our interviewees consider EU citizenship as allowing to plan mobility to any of the EU member states. However, the strength and the importance of transnational links can re-orient such open-ended plans, making a return migration to one of the countries of previous residence (including the country of birth for the EU citizens by birth) more attractive than a further onward migration. Conversely, onward migration in some cases has weakened transnational attachments, as the links with the first country of migration are in competition with those of the country of birth. Given these results we invite to reflect on whether transnationalism and mobility theory are simply convergent or if they describe phenomena that might actually be in partial opposition

Citizen to Stay or Citizen to Go? Naturalization, Security, and Mobility of Migrants in Italy

https://doi.org/10.1080/15562948.2016.1208316We analyze the relation between naturalization, mobility, and security through 50 in-depth interviews with migrants of different origins living in two Italian regions. We show how migrants pursue naturalization both to protect themselves against bureaucracy and deportation and to move to a third country. The second migration is motivated by improving one's conditions, forced by the economic crisis, or completes the original migratory project once a strong passport is obtained. We argue that citizenship is not essentially linked to either stability or mobility and that mobility should be understood as neither exceptional nor always chosen

Brexit and the stratified uses of national and European Union citizenship

In this article the authors explore how Brexit changes the social meanings and uses of formal national and EU citizenship and how these meanings and uses are stratified, including by migratory experience, class and age. They do so through in-depth interviews with Britons in Belgium, EU27 citizens ‘by birth’ residing in the UK, and Bangladeshis who naturalised in Italy before moving to the UK. The article highlights the differences both between the three groups and within the groups, along lines of class and age, in the expectations regarding rights linked to citizenship, in the salience of different rights (e.g. freedom of movement, access to welfare, voting), and in the availability of alternative resources to contain the impact of Brexit. The authors argue that the Brexit process not only highlights the value of citizenship as well as the added value of a citizenship of an EU member state, but that it also reveals how the value of citizenships is internally stratified

Barriers to the Equal Treatment of (aspirant) Citizens: The Case of the Application of Nationality Law in Belgium

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe