Mobile Citizenship: Gender, Ethnicity and European Privilege

Mobility rights within the Europe Union are a key feature of European citizenship. Yet there is little research on how this privileged form of  mobility engenderrs new forms of belonging and identity. Drawing on empirical research with migrant women from Europe in London, the paper explores how they construct belonging for themselves and their children. European citizenship is an important social division between migrant mothers: European citizens are entitled to migrate to and work in the UK, whereas non-European citizens have to legitimate their presence with recourse to humanitarian reasons (refugees) or their ability to economically contribute. The project explores how a group of middle class, white mothers with privileged mobility rights in the EU experience and conceptualise cultural identity, mobility and belonging for themselves and for their children. The paper presents different mobility strategies of these mothers, and discusses how these intersect with economic, professional and national positioning. Furthermore, the paper explores how the social positioning of these mothers relates to the moral and political positions they take on migration, mobility and citizenship rights.