Taking emigration seriously: a new agenda for research on free movement and welfare

Abstract

Free movement of persons (FoM) is a key topic in current research on European integration’s effects on social justice and national welfare states. These debates have focused almost exclusively on FoM as the right to entry, and neglected the correlative right to exit. As a consequence, mainstream political science and public policy research has paid very little attention to welfare state-related implications of extensive emigration in several EU member states. This article argues that emigration should be incorporated into the FoM and welfare states research agenda, so as to better comprehend the relationship between FoM and welfare policy and politics, and to advance our understanding of how FoM alters national welfare boundaries. It discusses some of the conceptual limitations resulting from studying FoM exclusively in terms of entry, and advances more specific proposals for including emigration into the wider research agenda.

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