INTRA-EU MOBILITY AND NATIONAL WELFARE STATES

This research enlightens several critical issues emerging from the tension between intra-European mobility and national welfare states. Initially, a broad literature review presents the current academic contributions dealing with the topic from a variety of points of view. Four main disciplines (sociology, economics, political sciences and law) and three levels of analysis (the national, the supra-national and the individual one) are discussed. Subsequently, three empirical chapters provide examples of studies on ‘micro’ data against this ‘macro’ background. In particular, two chapters are dedicated to the debated issue of mobile European citizens’ access to welfare in host member states. The focus is on unemployment, family and housing benefits which present higher rates of receipt among EU citizens and are the most ‘visible’ dimension of welfare. The first study provides also a detailed descriptive overview on the populations of EU citizens across countries, while the second tests the concept of ‘migration neutrality’ over time both intra and inter generations. The use of benefits by EU citizens does not seem to be always connected with their socio-economic profiles, and the first five years of residence come out to be the only relevant threshold to access benefits across all welfare regimes. The last empirical chapter faces a new emerging issue by adopting the point of view of sending countries, that is whether intra-EU mobility is beneficial for intergenerational social mobility. In the case of Romanians, who are the most mobile population in Europe nowadays, the choice to migrate emerges to be detrimental for social mobility, independently from the area of destination. These insights contribute to add evidence to the complex and evolving picture of intra-European mobility, hopefully informing both academics and policy makers.