Citizens and/or strangers: EU free movers' associations in southern European civil societies

In the global population of migrants, European citizens living abroad within the EU enjoy a quite exceptional legal status, as they are entitled to the same rights as nationals of that state (with the only exception of voting at general elections). compared to ‘average world migrants’, ‘EU movers’ enjoy the privilege of living in societies where being an immigrant does not imply any second-level status per se. Technically speaking, citizens of EU member states who have moved to another EU member state are international migrants. That is, they fulfill the requirements of the standard UN definition of migrants as ‘persons who move to a country other than that of his or her usual residence for a period of at least one year’. On the other hand, their status makes them very similar to internal migrants. They are citizens and strangers at the same time.

Especially after the 2004 and 2007 enlargements of the EU and the subsequent waves of East-West continental migration, the number of EU movers has grown and their impact on receiving society more visible. Drawing on a recent survey of the associations of Poles, Rumanians, Britons and Germans (see www.moveact.eu), the paper shall assess the impact of movers on civil society in Italy, France, Spain and Greece, showing diverging demands and strategies of active citizenship for Eastern and Western European movers.