The Contentious Politics of Hospitality: Intra-EU Mobility and Social Rights

Intra-Eu mobility has become increasingly contested. Despite empirical evidence showing that migrants are not a burden for the receiving countries, a growing number of voters think that nationals should have priority in terms of jobs and welfare. In a realist perspective, this “nativist” turn cannot be ignored, as it might undermine the very idea of EU citizenship. While nondiscrimination, as enshrined in the Treaties, should certainly remain the first order principle to defend free movement from a legal and normative point of view, in the present predicament it might be reasonable to complement it with the less demanding principle of “hospitality”. Practically, this would mean to give back to Member States a modicum of autonomy in filtering the access to social benefits for inactive or non-resident persons.