A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Britain and the Other – Moral perceptions of the right to free movement in the European Commission and in the UK




SubtitleMoral perceptions of the right to free movement in the European Commission and in the UK

AuthorsHeinikoski Saila

PublisherEuropean Centre for Minority Issues

Publishing placeFlensburg

Publication year2015

JournalJournal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe

Journal acronymJEMIE

Volume14

Issue1

First page 71

Last page92

Web address http://www.ecmi.de/fileadmin/downloads/publications/JEMIE/2015/Heinikoski.pdf


Abstract

As a result of the enlargement of the European Union (EU), the number of migrants from

Eastern and Central European countries has expanded in the “old” Member States, after

which some politicians and political parties have started to question the rationale of free

movement. This article tackles this topical subject by analysing the moral aspects of the

right to free movement, which is a fundamental right in the European Union. A new

framework for analysing moral stances will be introduced, which makes it possible to

analyze moral perspectives on a broader scale instead of focusing on single

juxtapositions. As an illustrative example of the use of the framework, the attitudes

toward free movement of three European Commissioners and United Kingdom (UK)

Prime Ministers Gordon Brown and David Cameron will be presented in the timescale of

2007 to 2014. The UK did not establish any transitional restrictions for the new EU

Member States that joined in 2004, but the number of migrants was larger than expected.

Recently, Prime Minister David Cameron has presented measures to decrease the number

of EU migrants. It will be argued that free movement is consistently justified by the

Commissioners, while the British rhetoric is based more on the “us/them-division”.



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