Freedom of Movement Needs to Be Defended as the Core of EU Citizenship

Abstract

Freedom of movement is under attack politically, legally, and conceptually. There is more than one reason to defend it. I argue that EU citizenship should be primarily about free movement as it (a) emancipates the individual from the nation state; (b) it serves to recalibrate questions of justice and democracy in a more appropriate manner; and (c) it lacks the ties to a homogenous political ‘community of fate’ that perpetuate significant exclusionary practices.