Learning Mobility Challenging Borders: Cross-border Experiences of eastern European Immigrants in Spain

Abstract

This article examines the cross-border mobility practices of eastern European immigrants across and within European Union (EU) borders, taking into account the changes in the patterns of the EU border regime, which have affected mobility in the last 20 years. Drawing on empirical research with references to in-depth qualitative interviews of eastern immigrants in Spain, this article highlights the ways in which the emerging models of cross-border mobility management are producing new geographies of the EU border. On the one hand, (re)bordering makes human mobility difficult, while, on the other hand, networked bordering facilitates mobility. The conclusions confirm that the flexibility of the European border allows the mobility of people, and also indicate that, while crossing borders, eastern Europeans learn about mobility and practice it as citizens of Europe.

Key Words:

• Mobility
• Border
• European Union
• Eastern Europeans
• Spain

Acknowledgement

I wish to express my gratitude to all of the eastern European migrants, who shared their cross-border experiences with me in the course of this research.

Notes

1. A method that starts with the collection of data and, by means of the data collected, the codes from which the information is then extracted are detected. The codes are grouped into similar concepts from which categories that represent the basis for formulating a theory or hypothesis of reverse engineering are formed.

2. The interviews were coded and analysed with the Atlas ti (version 6) qualitative analysis programme.

3. Ministry of Employment and Social Security. http://www.empleo.gob.es/es/estadisticas/index.htm.

4. Agreement between Spain and Romania concerning the regulation and management of labour migration flows. Madrid, 23 January 2002. http://noticias.juridicas.com/base_datos/Laboral/a191102-rum.html.

5. Agreement between Spain and Bulgaria concerning the regulation of labour migration flows. Madrid, 28 October 2003. http://ipv4.noticias.juridicas.com/base_datos/Laboral/a051103-aex.html.

6. Agreement between Spain and Ukraine concerning the regulation of migration flows. Madrid, 12 May 2009. http://www.otrosi.net/article/acuerdo-espa%C3%B1a-ucrania-relativo-la-regulaci%C3%B3n-de-flujos-migratorios.

7. Polish Charter was established by an act of the Polish Parliament dated 7 September 2007 and called the Act on the Pole’s Card (Dz.U. 2007 No. 180/1280), which specifies the rights of the holder of the Card, the rules for granting, loss of validity and rescission of the Card and the competencies of the public administration’s bodies and procedures in these cases.

8. Romanian citizenship Law 21/1991, Romania, 1991. http://www.romanianpassport.co.il/english/romanian-citizenship-law/.

9. Ministry of Employment and Social Security, Spain, June, 2007. http://www.empleo.gob.es/es/estadisticas/index.htm.

10. European Commission (2011). Decision to Authorise Spain to Temporarily Suspend the Right of Free Circulation for Romanian workers (Regulation 492/2011) Brussels. 11.8.2011 C (2011) 5896 final.

11. Ministry of Employment and Social Security, Spain, 30 June 2013.

12. Ministry of Employment and Social Security, Spain, 30 June 2013 http://extranjeros.empleo.gob.es/es/Estadisticas/operaciones/con-certificado/201306/Residentes_Tablas_PR_30062013.pdf.

13. Ministry of Employment and Social Security, Spain, 30 June 2013. http://extranjeros.empleo.gob.es/es/Estadisticas/operaciones/con-certificado/201306/Residentes_Tablas_PR_30062013.pdf.

Additional information

Funding

Funding: This article is part of the research project entitled: “Eastern European Migration to Spain in the context of border geopolitics: circulatory mobility and return”, (CSO 2010-14870), with funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and coordination by the author (PhD Researcher “Ramón y Cajal”, RyC 2009-03834).