Free to move

Chapter 4 introduces a network approach to horizontal Europeanisation research and investigates the interconnectedness of European societies via cross-border migration. The main underlying assumption is that the establishment of pan-European mobility rights and their extension to ever wider shares of Europe’s population has stimulated intra-European migration, and thus horizontal Europeanisation. Taking a social network perspective, we track the development of the European migration network over more than half a century (1960–2017). The analysis is based on dyadic migration stock data for 37 European countries, stemming from the World Bank and the United Nations. Indeed, large parts of the evidence suggest advancing horizontal Europeanisation, as the European mobility network has become more tight-knit and Europeans increasingly move within Europe rather than to countries in other parts of the world. Europe even emerged as a distinct and largely unified entity in the worldwide migration network, at least until 2010. At the same time, the shape of the European migration network reveals a strong core-periphery division. Moreover, since the dissolution of the Eastern bloc, this sociometric hierarchy increasingly maps on Europe’s economic core-periphery structure. Taken together, our findings suggest an advancing, yet unequal and partially challenged Europeanisation.