The Diversification of Intra-European Movement

Abstract

The literature on free movement among the 28 member states of the European Union (EU) divides along two main themes. The first set of studies analyses the nature and type of intra-European movement. Here, the central focus tends to be one of the main migration flows within Europe – namely, the movement of Central and Eastern Europeans (CEE) who are mostly citizens of the EU (Black et al. 2010). In migration studies, this freedom of movement within the EU is increasingly articulated in terms of ‘East’ to ‘West’ migration. Many studies show how this migration pattern within Western Europe is expanding beyond the seasonal and circular forms of labour migration that initially characterized CEE migration, to one characterized by more permanence (e.g., Recchi 2008; Favell 2008; Eade et al. 2006; Düvell and Vogel 2006; Engbersen et al. 2011, 2013; Castro-Martin and Cortina 2015). To illustrate, Engbersen et al. (2011, 2013) contend that along the two axes of attachment to country of origin and destination, there are now four categories of intra-European movement: (1) bi-national; (2) circular; (3) settlement and; (4) “footloose”. This typology captures the fact that some migrants preserve transnational ties that attach them to their region of origin as well as their host countries while others remain permanently in receiving societies, later reuniting with family members or establishing new families in the receiving country (ibid.). Others still may continue their expedition to other parts of Europe or may rather end up “footloose”, experiencing problems accessing the labour market in the receiving country as their ties with the home country fade (ibid.). Studies also show that different types of migration are related to different stages of migration, moving from an initial stage of temporary work abroad, through transnational commuting to permanent settlement, where these phases largely depend on the labour market opportunities in the destination regions (Friberg 2012).