A solidarity bias? Assessing the effects of individual transnationalism on social solidarity in the EU

This paper investigates whether cross-border virtual and physical experiences are associated with attitudes toward different forms of social solidarity within the European Union (EU). Conceptually, we distinguish between mobility-related and generic solidarity. We further subdivide the former by looking at respondents’ welfare chauvinistic attitudes vis-`a-vis intra-EU mobile citizens and extra-EU immigrants. To evaluate the differences in specific versus diffuse forms of social solidarity filtered through the experience of transnationalism we draw on original public opinion survey data collected by the REScEU project after the last European Parliament elections in 10 EU countries (Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Poland, The Netherlands, Spain and Sweden). We find that transnationalism fosters a specific type of mobility-related solidarity. In particular, transnationalism plays a positive effect on acceptance of foreigners into the domestic welfare system regardless whether they are EU or third country nationals. Instead, transnational experiences are not associated with generic attitudes towards solidarity, that is, support for “helping others” in the abstract. Finally, we discuss the implications of our results in light of the COVID-19 outbreak that dramatically reduced the level of cross-border mobility and transnational physical experiences of EU citizens.