Post the 2004 and 2007 enlargements, EU citizenship has mainly been interpreted as free-movement rights allowing for migration between member states of the Union. The population of mobile Europeans has expanded and diversified since then. Intra-EU movers form a heterogeneous category: manual workers (mostly but not only from accession countries), high-skilled globally-oriented professionals, North-to-South retirees, students, life-style movers, bi-national family members. While they are likely to have different personal trajectories, expectations and plans, these people are key “pioneers” of European integration “from below” – living testimonials of a novel, democratic and dynamic social fabric on a transnational scale.
The project targets British, German, Polish and Romanian citizens residing in France, Italy, Spain and Greece.
The MOVEACT project aims at:
a) establishing the personal and contextual factors that condition the political participation of EU citizens who live in a member state different from the one where they were born and/or grew up (i.e., intra-EU movers);
b) tackling the cultural and knowledge factors that prevent the political participation of intra-EU movers in their communities of residence, by preparing and launching a multi-media promotion campaign in the interests of such participation.
Project coordinator: Prof. Ettore Recchi, University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy
The Migration Research Team of ELIAMEP (Prof. Anna Triandafyllidou & Ms Michaela Maroufof ) is responsible for conducting the research in Greece.
