Citizenship in the European Union: Borders and Burdens

The paper aims to question changing constellations and perspectives for citizenship in Europe, related to the two main fields in which the contradictions of the European model of democracy and integration have been manifested, affecting its borders and boundaries. 1. European integration has redefined the spatial architecture of social citizenship, interfering with national rules on inclusion/exclusion and causing a partial disjunction between social rights and national territory. At the same time, rescaling processes strengthen the relationship between rights and territory, creating new forms of citizen¬ship at the local and urban level. The scenario is fraught with contradictions. Firstly, the frailty of ‘Social Europe’ becomes more and more evident after the crisis of 2007-2008, bringing to light a deficit of social solidarity within the EU space. Secondly, there is a growing number of individuals, mainly migrant workers, who lack rights or are classifiable as “denizens”. In this context, what are the meanings and implications of social citizenship’s rescaling, concerning universalism principles and solidarity mechanisms? 2. The current situation with the ‘migrant’ or ‘refugee’ crisis – regarding people in extreme need of care and inclusion with almost no political and social rights – revealed the serious limitations of both political and civil actors and agencies in creating durable structural frames of action on the national and transnational levels. These forced migrants are widely perceived as a menace to social and civic security, with an immediate effect of reconsideration of the EU external and internal borders, involving old, new and aspiring European countries as well. What conditions are needed to overturn this perception and shape new social frames supporting an action based on an extended inclusive solidarity principle? What new meaning of solidarity principle will the current crisis bring to the future integration process of Europe? Referring to case studies and secondary analysis, the paper addresses these questions using two main analytical keys: - Frailty of the social dimension of European integration with respect to the economic one, - The relation between social security and civil security.