Moving Freely, but Taking a Different Route: Comparing Trans-Tasman and European Union Norms of Human Mobility

Abstract

Human mobility is central to the European project of economic and political integration. This chapter examines the ‘exportability’ of two central aspects of the European Union’s (EU) human mobility regime and the norms that underpin them: the removal of border controls within the Schengen zone and the EU Social Security Coordination system. It looks to the highly liberalised human mobility regime found in the free travel area between Australia and New Zealand and asks when, why and how Australia and New Zealand have adopted, adapted, resisted or rejected these two aspects of the EU’s mobility regime. It finds that although trans-Tasman policy-makers have reshaped historical Australasian practices of human mobility in line with the norm of liberal market integration, the border control and social security policies they have developed to support human mobility are markedly different to those employed in the EU. Four inter-related variables are explored below to explain these differences: the origins and timing of the Australasian model; the institutional arrangements guiding its development; power asymmetries between Australia and New Zealand; and geography in the form of a sea border.