Migration, Economic Citizenship and the European Union

Course author and teacher:
Dr. Sumeet Mhaskar

The European continent is confronted with the challenge of an ageing population combined with a major deficit in the skilled workforce. In this context, the large-scale movement of refugees together with high and low skilled labour migration to the European continent have only provided them with much needed labour force. Ironically, however, this inflow of migrants has become the rallying point for xenophobic and anti-migrant political movements across the Europe. Of the various socio-economic and political aspects around this movement of people, migrants and refugees right to work and the overall issue of economic citizenship has been quite central. This course will explore the multi-faceted dimensions of migrants’ economic citizenship in European countries. It will examine the policies of European Union that encourage, regulate and restrict migration flows. The course will also delve into the issue of temporary and permanent settlement of migrants. Following the role of state, this course will also examine the role of social institutions such as race, ethnicity and gender in shaping the economic choices of migrant population. Lastly, this course will engage with the question of inter-generational mobility by looking at the second-generation ethnic minorities in the western labour markets.

The course content was elaborated as a result of Sumeet Mhaskar’s participation in the first EURASIA training held in Catania, Italy in October 2018. In addition, Prof. Dr. Maria Stoicheva from Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski who was consulted in preparing the course manual, peer reviewed and validated the same.

The course was subjected to accreditation procedures at O. P. Jindal Global University - India and piloted as a cross-curricular elective course open to BA and MA students from the whole of the O. P. Jindal Global University.