The Public Opinion of EU-Movers – Comparing Evaluations of EU Membership for Countries of Residence and Countries of Origin

EU-Movers Attitudes Towards EU Membership of their Country of Residence and Country of Origin

Abstract

In the literature on public attitudes towards European integration, only a few studies have focused on EU citizens living in a different Member State than they were born in. While data on this specific group is rare, the pro-Europeanness of EU-movers has been taken for granted, given that they make active use of and, thus, profit from the right of free movement stemming from EU citizenship. This paper aims to fill this gap in the literature in two ways. On the one hand, it investigates how EU-movers evaluate the benefits of EU membership of their country of origin as well as their country of residence. On the other hand, this paper compares movers' attitudes to those of natives in their country of residence as well as stayers in their country of origin and asks whether EU-movers trust the EU more and evaluate EU membership as more beneficial. Drawing
on Eurobarometer data, the conducted logistic regressions reveal that EU-movers are more likely to trust the EU than stayers as well as natives. However, movers are less likely to positively evaluate EU membership of their country of origin than stayers.