National and Transnational Identities of Intra-European Migrants

Crossing Borders, Shifting Boundaries. National and Transnational Identities in Europe and Beyond. Festschrift for Max Haller
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pp. 263-287
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Frankfurt / New York
,
Campus
,
2012,

Franz Höllinger, Markus Hadler,
Braun, Michael, Walter Müller
ISBN: 13: 9783593416823
Abstract

The chapter focuses on European identification of especially intra-European migrants. It finds that groups who make use of the new liberties of transnational mobility in Europe, especially migrants with higher education, language proficiency, and wide social contacts can be seen to constitute a kind of vanguard in identificational attachment with Europe. To some extent, the creation of conditions encouraging movement across national borders in Europe seems to support political aims of European identity formation. Yet, as identification with Europe is complementary rather than competitive with both the Country of Origin (CoO) and the country of Residence (CoR) identity, intra-European migrants appear to be able to reconcile multiple identities and find ways of multiple inclusion, transcending one-sided patterns of integration, both exclusive attachment to the CoO and assimilation to the CoR as well as marginality.

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