East-West Mobility Research Articles

Securitizing mobility: Profiling ‘non-core’ Europeans

By combining securitization literature and literature from the field of border criminologies, this article reflects upon the ongoing securitization of intra-EU East–West mobility. The European Union is built on the inherent tension between the (economic) benefits and risks of one of its core principles: the principle of free movement. The two enlargements of the EU that led to the inclusion of several countries located in Central and Eastern Europe further increased this tension and led countries in Western Europe to officially reconstruct intra-Schengen borders. By looking into recent practices of (border) policing in the Netherlands, this article illustrates how CEE nationals are subjected not only to a securitized discourse around their mobility but also to securitized policing practices that aim to create a division between ‘core’ and ‘non-core’ Europeans while at the same time distinguishing between possible ‘crimmigrant’ others and bona fide travellers.

East–West Mobility Space – The Role of Different Types of Capitals in Moving or Staying Put

East–West Mobility Space – The Role of Different Types of Capitals in Moving or Staying Put

Bringing EU citizens together or pulling them apart? The European Health Insurance Card, east–west mobility and the failed promise of European social integration

Although the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) was meant to bring Europeans together, this study shows that it is amplifying social inequalities across regions and classes. First, we evaluate the effects of east–west EHIC mobility, and of Eastern Europeans’ participation in it, on the practice of EU social citizenship rights to access cross-border care along spatial (east–west) and social class divides. We then assess the impact of these mobilities on healthcare resources in Western and Eastern Europe. Our findings show that the EHIC reinforces rather than reduces the spatially and socially uneven access to social citizenship rights to cross-border care. Moreover, EHIC patient outflows from Eastern to Western Europe result in a much higher relative financial burden for the budgets of Eastern European states than outflows from Western to Eastern Europe do for Western European countries. As a result, east–west EHIC mobility is reproducing rather than reversing healthcare inequalities between the two regions. Hence, the EHIC does not fulfil its promise of European social integration – not, however, because it creates a burden on Western European welfare states as often argued in Eurosceptic tabloids, but because it increases social inequalities both inside and between richer and poorer EU member states.

East-West Mobility of a High-skilled young Generation – Chances and Obstacles for a Triple Win

East-West Mobility of a High-skilled young Generation – Chances and Obstacles for a Triple Win

Impacts of negative labor market experiences on the life satisfaction of European East–West mobile workers: Cross-border commuters from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary in Austria

This article investigates the impacts of negative labor market experiences on the life satisfaction of European East–West mobile workers by taking Czech, Slovak and Hungarian cross-border commuters working in Austria as an example. The recent literature has indicated a ‘dark side’ of East–West mobility, as many mobile Eastern Europeans face negative labor market experiences in the Western labor markets. If East–West commuters accept such experiences, employers and employees may quite easily subvert working standards, with detrimental effects on host countries that are intertwined in cross-border labor markets. Empirically, this study used a sequential mixed-methods design, based on quantitative and qualitative data from a research project on East–West commuters in Austria. The empirical findings showed that the negative labor market experiences are not important for commuters’ life satisfaction. From a multitude of those experiences under investigation, only ethnic discrimination experiences had a significantly negative impact. Instead, life satisfaction was mainly influenced by the overall health status and the perception that one’s own living conditions have improved in comparison with those of others from one’s country of origin. The in-depth qualitative findings corroborated the quantitative findings in terms of the low relevance of negative labor market experiences for the subjective assessments of commuting.

Labour market impacts of post-enlargement migration on hosts and stayers in EU labour markets

The eastern enlargements of the EU and the extension of the free movement of labour to the new Member States have provided for increased mobility in the EU. This article reviews the impact of the newly emerged east-west mobility patterns on the labour market options of the labour force in host Member States and stayers in the source countries. The literature generally finds a positive aggregate effect on the host labour force, although micro-level adjustment may create winners and losers and the integration of immigrants has been limited. In spite of the fears of brain drain from the sending countries, empirical evidence also indicates positive effects on wages and employment of the stayers. A study on the effects of husbands’ employment abroad on the labour market status of Slovak women provides additional evidence of positive effects of husbands’ out-migration on their wives’ labour market outcomes. This study concludes that free mobility in an enlarged EU led to an increase in the efficiency of its labour markets.

European Cinema after the Wall: Screening East-West Mobility. Ed. Leen Engelen and Kris van Heuckelom. Film and History. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014. xxii, 192 pp. Appendix. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Illustrations. $75.00, hard bound.

European Cinema after the Wall: Screening East-West Mobility. Ed. Leen Engelen and Kris van Heuckelom. Film and History. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014. xxii, 192 pp. Appendix. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Illustrations. $75.00, hard bound. - Volume 74 Issue 4

Cross-Border Labour Flows from Estonia to Neighbouring Countries

The aim of this paper is to outline differences in the socio-demographic and employment characteristics of Estonian people who have worked in a neighbouring country – Finland, Sweden, Latvia or Russia. The empirical part of this paper relies on data from CV Keskus – an online employment portal bringing together jobseekers and vacant job posts. The results of our analysis show that different destination regions – the wealthier countries of Finland and Sweden (referred to as East-West mobility) and Latvia and Russia (referred to as East-East mobility) have attracted workers with different personal and job-related characteristics. Ethnicity and higher education are important determinants in explaining differences between East-West and East-East labour flows. Non-Estonians and people with a higher education have been less likely to work in Finland or Sweden.

Oost-West mobiliteit en de bestuurlijke europeanisering van steden: een vergelijkende studie van de cases Gent en Rotterdam

Little research has examined the Europeanization of urban governance. This article seeks to plug this gap in the literature by comparing the political reactions of the cities of Ghent and Rotterdam with regard to East-West mobility. We focus on two dimensions of the Europeanization of urban governance, namely (1) the impact of European integration on the urban policy agenda and (2) the development of urban policy strategies on a European scale. Although Ghent and Rotterdam have both experienced an increase of East-European newcomers, the urban governance process shows important distinctions. Whereas the growth of East-West mobility aroused debate about Ghent’s self-proclaimed progressive policy culture, Rotterdam’s reaction verged on the limitations of lawful intervention. The article concludes that the Europeanization of urban governance does not necessarily lead to mutual convergence, but is dependent on the interplay of the national/ regional context, the urban political culture and the strategies of urban actors.

East-West European superpositions as transvergent cinema: Greg Zglinski's Tout un hiver sans feu (2005)

This essay will present the film Tout un hiver sans feu/A Long Winter without Fire, directed by Greg Zglinski, as an exemplary case of the contemporary cinematic crossing of Eastern and Western Europe. Using the concept of transvergence developed by Marcos Novak, it will suggest that this film expresses a new experience of East-West mobility that follows the logic of superposition rather than of exile or diaspora. Of particular interest in the film is the use of intercultural communication as a figure of this new mobility as well as the contrast it makes between this transvergent openness to otherness and the dangers of cultural and subjective isolation. The essay will conclude with an examination of fire as a key element of the film which itself functions as a figure of transvergence.

Slovak commuter migration into Austria - reality versus imaginations

The commuter migration from Slovakia into Austria occupies a special position in Europe. The relatively short distance between Bratislava and Vienna encourages a rapid creation of information networks and permits job-seekers to find work in line with their qualification without too much financial outlay. Unlike other groups of migrants, the Slovakian commuters experience almost no dequalification and do not have to take up a marginal position on the labour market. It is remarkable that both the public opinion and the official statistics have failed to register this new development and therefore the realistic figures to fully comprehend it are lacking. The fact that this form of East-West mobility is being accepted without comment as "the new normality" may, perhaps, be attributed to the common bonds of the past.