Citizenship and Solidarity in Europe in Times of ‘Migrant Crisis’

Abstract

The recent ‘migrant’ and ‘refugee’ crisis promoted the emergence of severe contradictions in the EU integration and enlargement project, encompassing the social and civic dimensions of citizenship. The European model of democracy and ‘Social Europe’ manifested here their structural, political and cultural frailty, affecting the EU’s supranational and transnational institutions, while the discourse, politics and policies, regarding the way in which the crisis had been approached, were nationally scaled and embedded. In spite of conflicting meanings given to the solidarity principle in public debates both on the national and on the transnational level, alternative forms of inclusion of refugees in social citizenship emerged, causing a partial disjunction between social rights and national territory. However, these forms of inclusion and gradual integration remained sporadic and isolated within the EU, while the majority of people in need of refuge, with or without the status of refugee or asylum seeker, found a problematic shelter in the EU’s neighboring countries, such as Turkey. The vulnerable condition of that specific migrant status happened to be even worse where intersected with other variables as gender (for women) and religion (for Muslims). The panel will discuss these topics concerning the issue of a transnational European social citizenship including the wider European space of membership aspirant countries, and analyzing forms and practices of solidarity towards migrants and refugees. The topics will be approached from the perspective of the discursive construction of solidarity and its contestation in public debates, considering the border-crossing integration practices on the local level, and finally questioning the social dimension of the EU institutions’ ability to deal with the migrant and refugee crisis.