Abstract
In critical social research the concept of employability is associated with the neoliberal imperative that every individual should become a self-responsible, self-improving and enterprising subject in the increasingly precarious labour markets. Despite the prominence of employability in policies governing young people’s intra-European migration, few studies examine migrants’ subjectivities in this context. Building on narrative data, this article adds to our understanding on how neoliberal subject formations function as an instrument for governing young EU migrants’ lives in conditions of precarious labour. Central to this understanding, it develops the concept of passion to depict young migrants’ quest for obtaining work with opportunities for self-development and self-realisation. This concept contributes to the study of highly qualified intra-EU migration by allowing critical analysis of meanings given to mobility in relation to work; by highlighting dynamics of (self-)precarisation in this context; and by advancing debates on social-structural inequality among EU migrants pursuing their quest for passion.
Highlights
The European Union (EU) has a long-standing objective to encourage educated young people to enhance their professional careers through opportunities for intra-EU mobility, such as student exchange programmes, internships, volunteering and working abroad
The analysis approaching the practice of intra-EU migration from the perspective of neoliberal governmentality shows how the EU policies targeting young middle-class Europeans normalise mobility as central to self-developing subjectivity
Conceptualising EU migration as lived neoliberal subjectivity clarifies the ambivalence of autonomy and compulsion in the context of this ostensibly privileged and ‘free’ mobility
Summary
The European Union (EU) has a long-standing objective to encourage educated young people to enhance their professional careers through opportunities for intra-EU mobility, such as student exchange programmes, internships, volunteering and working abroad. Its purpose is to add to our understanding on how neoliberal subject formation functions as an instrument for governing highly qualified young EU migrants’ lives in precarious labour markets Central to this understanding, the article applies and develops the concept of passion to depict young migrants’ quest for obtaining work that offers opportunities for self-realisation, self-development and selffulfilment, rather than economic gain or social mobility (Farrugia, 2019). In different ways and to varying degrees, most EU countries implement welfare policies with a workfarist orientation, that render entitlements increasingly conditional on contributions made through waged-work (Greer, 2016; O’Reilly et al, 2019) As another deeply neoliberal construct, workfarism stresses individuals’ responsibility in managing the social and economic risks they confront in the labour market through embracing flexibility and actively working on their employability (McDonald and Marston, 2005). Claims made for social entitlements could lead to residence rights being withdrawn (see Lafleur and Mescoli, 2018)
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