For the sake of EU 'citizenship': Social groups and citizens’ mobility in the EU

This paper explores the role social groups have in defending European Union (EU) citizenship. Drawing on critical discourse analysis of Commission documents, it highlights how the Commission expects such groups to defend the mobility rights and associated benefits of EU citizens – especially to work, study and live in a member state other than their country of origin. These expectations are then compared with the aspirations and activates present in the policy statement of such social groups. It is suggested that the workings of these groups may, at the outset, appear as beneficial in generating awareness among citizens about their EU status. Their campaigns and activities appear to correspond nicely with the expectations of the Commission. At the same time however, the primary work of these groups takes place within national arenas, rather than across national borders or the whole of the EU. As a result, they work against national frameworks, which are bound to limit the effectiveness of social groups. These contradictory developments are likely to have important consequences for the future of EU citizenship and, by extension, the EU’s aspiring political project.