The United States of Europe?
Fascinating little fact in the Telegraph the other day:
Just 1.5 per cent of European citizens of working age live in an EU state other than their country of origin, according to the European Commission - a percentage little changed in 30 years.
This does seem to contradict T.R. Reid's thesis in his book with the same name as the title of this post. Granted, cultures are melding a bit, and folks are traveling to other EU countries more than in the past, as this Washington Post article discusses. And we're not sure if these statistics account for undocumented workers - probably not.
But compare this with the real United States, where I (for example) have siblings on the West Coast, parents on the East Coast, and me in the Great American Midwest (or Great Lakes States or Ohio River Valley if you prefer). And grandparents, aunts, and uncles are further scattered still. Fortunately for me, most live in scenic beach towns.
I digress. The point is that nationalism still exists in the EU (no big surprise), and people still prefer the company of the countrymen with whom they grew up, whether for economic, cultural, or geographical reasons; or all of the above.
(Note: I found the Telegraph story on EU Referendum.)
Just 1.5 per cent of European citizens of working age live in an EU state other than their country of origin, according to the European Commission - a percentage little changed in 30 years.
This does seem to contradict T.R. Reid's thesis in his book with the same name as the title of this post. Granted, cultures are melding a bit, and folks are traveling to other EU countries more than in the past, as this Washington Post article discusses. And we're not sure if these statistics account for undocumented workers - probably not.
But compare this with the real United States, where I (for example) have siblings on the West Coast, parents on the East Coast, and me in the Great American Midwest (or Great Lakes States or Ohio River Valley if you prefer). And grandparents, aunts, and uncles are further scattered still. Fortunately for me, most live in scenic beach towns.
I digress. The point is that nationalism still exists in the EU (no big surprise), and people still prefer the company of the countrymen with whom they grew up, whether for economic, cultural, or geographical reasons; or all of the above.
(Note: I found the Telegraph story on EU Referendum.)
posted by bp at
4:29 PM
2 Comments:
Without seeing the full figures it's hard to tell, but if the survey was of people from all 25 member states, the figures would be heavily skewed by the 10 new member states - especially the ex-Communist ones. They've not even had two years to start migrating, after all... A breakdown showing the figures for individual countries would (I'd guess) show a much higher incidence of cross-border migration in the 15 older members.
By
Nosemonkey, at 7:06 AM
I think you're right: the more I think about the 1.5 percent statistic, the more I question it. I'd like to see more about the data.
A post of mine with a link to an article about Latvians in Ireland, for example, drew an immense amount of web traffic, so there must be something there.
In addition to newer states, I think if the data were controlled for age, the results would be rather different.
By
bp, at 8:55 AM
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