Content and Objectives

Promoting inner-European mobility is an important core mission of European Integration, yet previous studies show that cross-border migration within Europe remains limited. This is true in particular for the older EU member states. A culture of low mobility and the reduction of regional disparities between the EU member states have been cited as explanations for this trend.

The government debt crises in southern European countries has changed the prevailing social and economic circumstances and, in recent years, led to a rise in regional disparities within the EU. In the meantime, the numbers of immigrants from Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece, in particular among younger age groups, have risen sharply. This changed migration behaviour can also be interpreted as increasing horizontal Europeanisation.

The aim of the project is to analyse the present changes in inner-European migration based on the example of Spanish-German migration and to gain deeper insights from the perspective of immigrants. Using qualitative interviews of young Spanish immigrants in Germany, the project asks how they experience their first months in Germany and, in particular, how they handle the status passage from training to earnings in the scope of the migration process.