The paradox of freedom of movement. Preference formation in favour and against EU integration

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The proposed project researches effects of freedom of movement (FOM) on the EU integration process. EU countries of destination of EU migrants have already received researchers’ attention finding that FOM can be perceived both positively and negatively leading to different actor positions on EU integration. However, little is known on this relationship in EU-countries of origin. Thus, the project is among the first that focuses on effects of FOM on politics and societies in EU countries of origin. Studying collective actor preferences it will reveal how FOM actually contributes to EU integration as predicted by EU integration theories and introduced in the EU Treaty (Art. 45 TFEU). Contrary to this assumption, FOM could also lead to a weakening of EU integration. Guided by two research assumptions the project researches first whether actors interpret effects of FOM increasingly within a communitarian framing and second whether and how diverging actor preferences on FOM may be compensated by strategies of institutional layering on national and EU level. Whether and how actors articulate attitudes towards EU integration on the basis of their FOM interpretations does not only allow for an assessment of the relationship between FOM and EU integration, but may also provide for strategies of conflict resolution within the EU multi-level system. Within this process of preference formation of actors on the national and EU level, the project will also unearth the social and political cleavages that lie at its core.