The EU, Globalization and Migration

Description

This innovative course examines the role of mobilities – of people, trade (goods and services), capital and knowledge – in shaping both EU integration and the EU’s relationships with the rest of the world. The course addresses mobility – or freedoms of mobility – as being implicit to the founding aims of the EU: the creation of ever closer union – even if initially the focus was on a customs union for goods. However, global shifts in these mobilities also challenge the cohesion of the EU e.g. in the case of human mobility, in relation to the common asylum policy, or the tensions generated by intra-EU migration after the eastern enlargement, contributing to Brexit, and the 2015+ refugee crisis. These challenge the core values (solidarity, collectivism etc.) and institutions of the EU. Similarly, although capital mobility is seen to be a driver of major economic shifts, or convergence, it also contributes to territorial and social inequalities, which challenge cohesion. The same applies to trade, and the trade conflicts with the rest of the world, especially the USA, China and Australia. Knowledge mobility plays a vital role in the EU’s competitiveness agenda, as well as being a flashpoint for conflicts between the EU and transnational digital companies over the control of web content, digital security and privacy, digital currencies, and taxation.

The initial lectures set the scene by examining European mobility and integration in context of globalisation. They examine the long term development of Europe, and the changing role of mobilities in this, before focusing on the post 1945 period during which an age of mass migration and growth was replaced by an age of uncertainty, and by the closing of immigration doors alongside the exponential growth of digital mobilities. This is accompanied by a focus on the evolution of the EU and the role that mobilities have played in this – both in fulfilling its goals, and in generating contradictions that, at time, threaten to undermine the grand project of European integration. The second part of the course focusses on different types of international mobility, and considers the roles played by capital mobility, labour and student migration, followed in the competitiveness of economies and the welfare of individual migrants. This is followed by analysis of the more political (refugees) dimensions of international migration, and a review of consumer-led mobility (tourism) contributes to economies, cultures and social identities. Finally the course concludes bye examining the future challenges posed by competing mobilities in the EU.