“Free Movers” and Exchange Students in Europe and around the Mediterranean Sea: Antagonistic Figures or Two Sides of the Same Coin?

The European student mobility Erasmus Programme, born 25 years ago, has aroused interest and many lay and scientific publications. However student mobility is multifaceted and can not be assimilated to a single type of mobility that could be qualified as “organised” or “institutionalised”. To consider the state of the art, on the injunctions and incentives to mobility in Europe and around the Mediterranean sea and the obstacles to students migration, will go back over the main research undertaken in recent years on the subjects in Europe (Erlich, 2012; Ballatore, 2010; Mazzella, 2009; Murphy- Lejeune, 2001; Agulhon, Xavier de Brito, 2009 ; Cammelli, 1999; Maiworm, Teichler, 1997 ; Jallade and al., 1996 ...).

First of all, we will take a particular interest in the construction of an European space of Higher Education and its historical link with the Mediterranean area, then we will pass through comparative analysis on European and Mediterranean student migrations, to finally look at projects, expectations and free movers' and exchange students' experiences. We will develop the idea that, general speaking, a part of the European research results leads one to believe that exchange programmes would only foster forms of “in–depth tourism” and would have little to do with others forms of “free mover” migration. The “acculturation” of students would be as temporary as the stay. We will wonder if this mobility could be predictive of others types of migration and conclude also underlining that in Europe the competition paradigm seems to have won the pot over the cooperation one, which is at the base of student exchanges and that, even today, still lacks a lot of studies and reliable data which would allow one to compare "organised" and "non-organised" mobility, student and professional mobility, as well as more general research on particular types of migration in Europe.