Citizens Gone - by Christof Roos & Anna Kyriazi (Hardcover)

About the Book

The book examines how countries at the periphery of Europe deal with the challenge of large-scale emigration. They adapt politically and socially and thus re-define the relations between citizens and state. Emigration is a key variable to understand contemporary societal and political change in Europe and beyond.

Book Synopsis

Emigration of scale challenges states at the European periphery at their core. The book documents these struggles along their effects for politics and policy within their economic and welfare dimensions. The politics of emigration describe changing voter attitudes and behaviour pointing towards more support for nationalist and right-wing parties. The policies of emigration show state and local level efforts for the return of emigrant citizens. The welfare and economic dimensions explore the context for emigration and its effects for growth models and systems of health and care within the European single market. The book observes two types of state transformations: the re-emergent nation-state that re-discovers its core resource, the citizenry, as well as states that functionally and socially adapt to population loss.

From the Back Cover

Emigration of scale challenges states at the European periphery at their core. The territorialised population as a condition of modern statehood changes due to European integration and (e)migration. Mobility and claims of citizens for individual liberty and welfare became Europeanised. Yet, the material base for such claims remains bound to the nation-state and its citizenry.

This is the puzzle that this volume departs from: Depletion of population as the core resource of the state feeds back into changing state-citizen relations and related struggles over citizen rights and duties. The book documents these struggles along with their effects for politics and policy within their economic and welfare dimensions. The politics of emigration describe changing voter attitudes and behaviour due to emigration, pointing towards more support for nationalist and right-wing parties. The policies of emigration show state and local level efforts for the return of emigrant citizens. And the welfare and economic dimensions explore the context for emigration and its effects for growth models and systems of health and care within the European single market. The contributions present qualitative and quantitative data comparing European emigration countries as diverse as Albania, Greece, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Portugal and Romania.

Citizens gone observes two types of state transformations: the re-emergent nation-state that re-discovers its core resource, the citizenry, as well as states that functionally and socially adapt to population loss. Both scenarios identify emigration as a key variable to understand contemporary societal and political change in the periphery of Europe.

About the Author

Christof Roos is Professor of European and Global Governance at the Europa-Universität Flensburg
Anna Kyriazi is Assistant Professor at the Department of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Milan