The History and Politics of Free Movement Within the European Union : European Borders of Justice

The right to free movement is the one privilege that EU citizens value the most in the Union, but one that has also created much political controversy in recent years, as the debates preceding the 2016 Brexit referendum aptly illustrate. This book examines how European politicians have justified and criticized free movement from the commencement of the first Commission of the EU-25 in November 2004 to the Brexit referendum in June 2016. The analysis takes into account the discourses of Heads of State, Governments and Ministers of the Interior (or Home Secretaries) of six major European states: the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Romania. In addition to these national leaders, the speeches of European Commissioners responsible for free movement matters are also considered. The book introduces a new conceptual framework for analysing practical reasoning in political discourses and applies it in the analysis of national free movement debates contextualised in respective migration histories. In addition to results related to political discourses, the study unearths wider problems related to free movement, including the diversified and variegated approaches towards different groups of movers as well as the exclusive attitudes apparent in both discourses and policies. The History and Politics of Free Movement within the European Union is of interest to anyone studying national and European politics and ideologies, contemporary history, migration policies and political argumentation. Cover 1 Half title 2 Series 3 Title 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 List of Figures 9 List of Tables 10 Acknowledgements 11 1 Introduction 14 1.1 Free movement: An endangered principle? 14 1.2 Filling a gap in mobility studies 16 1.3 Normative social science from a new perspective 20 1.4 Research questions and the structure of the book 22 2 The context: The history of free movement in Europe 26 2.1 Historical overview of the regulation of people’s movement 26 2.2 Free movement: From an economic principle towards a fundamental right 30 2.3 Security and immigration intertwined in the Schengen Area 32 3 Conceptual framework and methodology 38 3.1 A conceptual framework of practical reasoning 38 3.2 The empirical material 40 3.3 Methodological underpinnings inspired by critical discourse analysis 43 4 Agreement dimension: Emphasis on common duties 48 4.1 Agreement-based reasoning as a theoretical ideal: Equal moral worth 48 4.2 Duty to comply with rules: Free movement of the Roma 51 4.3 Duty of balancing between rules and security 58 4.4 Duty of better implementation 64 4.5 Rights-based Europe: Mobility justified by common rules 71 5 Community dimension: Reproducing the community of the European Union 74 5.1 Community-based reasoning as a theoretical ideal: Focus on ‘our duty’ 74 5.2 Duty stemming from ‘a fundamental piece of European community’ 76 5.3 Duty stemming from responsibility towards future generations 80 5.4 Duty stemming from deep diversity: The nation as primary responsibility 81 5.5 Europe as identification: ‘Our’ mobility justified with values 86 6 Utility dimension: Optimizing concrete benefits 90 6.1 Utility-based reasoning as a theoretical ideal: Strain or gain? 90 6.2 Goal of maximizing functionality 92 6.3 Goal of maximizing benefits 96 6.4 Goal of minimizing costs 102 6.5 ‘A Europe that delivers’: Mobility justified with material benefits 107 7 Solidarity dimension: Solidarity as the ultimate aim 110 7.1 Solidarity-based reasoning as a theoretical ideal: Wider sense of ‘us’ 110 7.2 Goal of deeper Europeanness 113 7.3 Goal of burden-sharing in immigration 118 7.4 Goal to prevent negative transactionalism 121 7.5 Europe of solidarity: Mobility justified as enhancing solidarity 123 8 Setting the scene: Migration policy histories of the analysed countries 126 8.1 The history of migration policies in Germany: From Gastarbeiter to immigrants 126 8.2 The history of French immigration policies: Republican assimilation 128 8.3 Migration policy history in Italy: A late country of immigration 129 8.4 Migration policy in the UK: Restrictions to mobility towards the country 131 8.5 History of Spanish migration policy: Emigration and regularizations 133 8.6 History of Romanian migration policy: Curtailing emigration 135 9 Free movement discourses by country 138 9.1 German emphasis on free movement as a commonly agreed beneficial principle 138 9.2 French focus on free movement rules 140 9.3 Italian discussion on the free movement of specific groups 143 9.4 The UK concerned about the control of free movement 144 9.5 Spain connects free movement to European integration 146 9.6 Romania focuses on the need to receive equal rights 148 9.7 European Commission emphasizes EU Treaties 150 9.8 Concluding remarks on the country-specifi c patterns of discourse 152 10 Free movement discourses as practical reasoning 156 10.1 Who should stay and who should go? 156 10.2 European political discourses: A few weak signals 160 10.3 Practical reasoning: Contradictions in the free movement discourses 162 10.4 ‘L’Europa è mobile’, or the existence of ‘European’ discourses 164 Appendix Material selection and speaker-specifi c tables 166 Germany 166 France 167 Italy 168 The UK 169 Spain 170 Romania 171 European Commission 172 Notes 174 Bibliography 200 Index 236 "This book examines the recent political debates around free movement in the EU within the context of respective migration histories across the continent"-- Provided by publisher