EU Citizenship and Expulsion – Exploring the Ambiguities of Supranational Citizenship

Abstract

At the heart of what is labelled a supranational and even a post-national status, lies a contradiction that is difficult to square with an understanding of EU citizenship as citizenship status: mobile EU citizens can be expelled from their state of residence to the Member State of their nationality. From the perspective of the general theory of citizenship, this aspect of EU citizenship is problematic since it is generally understood that international and human rights law do not allow states to expel their own nationals. Expulsion is often seen as the fault line between citizens and migrants as well as an expression of state sovereignty. This aspect of EU citizenship raises a series of normative and empirical questions around the meaning of expulsion, the legal rules applicable (international, EU, national and their interactions), their interpretation and application and not least, their impact on affected EU citizens and their family members. The panel will explore national practices of expulsion of EU citizens as well as their link with international human rights standards of protection and EU standards designed to safeguard the exceptionality of EU citizenship. We propose to approach EU citizenship as an in-between status, not yet a nationality, yet something more than a migration status. The papers explore how this in-betweeness is interwoven in the legal rules detailing the conditions under which EU citizens can be expelled but also in the everyday experiences of EU citizens, since there is evidence to question how deportable EU citizens actually are. The panel addresses the ambiguities that ensue from the legal expression of EU citizenship as well as place them in the social and political contexts in which EU mobility is exercised. We aim to problematize the role of expulsion in the construction of EU citizenship and the normative model of belonging it stands for by focusing on the two grounds of expulsion that are used by national authorities to terminate the residence rights of mobile EU citizens: public security and welfare dependence. The panel thus interrogates the position of criminal and poor EU citizens as supranational citizens.